Bengaluru RSS worker hacked to death: CCTV footage helps cops to identify assailants

The Bengaluru police have acquired a CCTV footage from a medical shop on an arterial road where the RSS worker Rudresh was hacked to death by two motorcycle-borne men on Sunday, reported India Today _._ The footage, however unclear, has helped the police to identify the assailants, states the report.

The incident took place on Kamaraja Road on 16 October when Rudresh was returning home on a bike after attending an RSS meeting at a nearby area. The 35-year-old realtor was first knocked down from his bike and then attacked by the duo with a lethal weapon, police said.

The attackers managed to escape despite some members of the public giving chase, they said Rudresh was rushed to the Bowring Hospital, where doctors declared him brought dead.

Police said they suspected that personal rivalry could be the reason behind the murder.

However, RSS city spokesperson Rajesh Padmar alleged that it was a continuation of an ‘organised elimination’ of the organisation’s workers.

“This is just a continuation of an organised elimination of our workers. Such an attempt was made also against an RSS worker sometime back here. Hence we suspect it is nothing but the continuation of killing and targeting our workers,” he said.

On Monday, BJP and RSS workers had staged a protest against the gruesome murder and demanded a fair probe into the case and immediate arrest of the culprits.

The workers led by former Deputy Chief Minister R Ashoka and Members of Parliament Shobha Karandlaje and PC Mohan and others marched from Shivajinagar towards Police Commissioner’s office but were stopped midway. Linking Rudresh’s murder to the killing of BJP and RSS functionaries in different parts of the country, Karandlaje said, “There is a feeling that these killings are part of a planned conspiracy.”

Former Chief Minister and State BJP President BS Yeddyurappa said the incident and the assailants’ escape “is a telling comment on the law and order situation in the state.”

He said the murder was a litmus test for the government “to demonstrate its seriousness, sincerity and will in nabbing the killers and taking the issue to its logical end.”

He alleged that in recent attacks on two RSS workers, the two men arrested were released on bail within a few hours.

“In the earlier two instances, the government failed. I demand Home Minister G Parameshwar come clean on this issue,” he added.

He warned that BJP would launch an agitation to mount pressure on the government over the issue of attacks on RSS swayamsevaks and BJP workers.

Meanwhile, RSS on Thursday demanded arrest of eight policemen, including suspended additional superintendent of police (ASP), charged with attempting to murder its pracharak in Madhya Pradesh’s Balaghat district last month.

“We demand the arrest of policemen responsible for brutally beating our pracharak on the intervening night of 25-26 September in Baihar area in Balaghat district,” RSS leaders told the media.

Police have done gross injustice to RSS Balaghat pracharak Suresh Yadav, said Rajkumar Matale, the Madhya Pradesh and Chhattisgarh region sampark pramukh of the organisation.

With inputs from PTI