Karni Sena chief’s wife warns of violence as police rush to catch killers

With protesters refusing to collect the body or allow postmortem, the Rajasthan Police has declared a Rs 5 lakh bounty on the two accused as well as a Rs 5 lakh reward for any information leading to their arrest, apart from constituting a Special Investigation Team.

By Wednesday evening, officials in Rajasthan appeared to be close to a breakthrough with the protesters, after the administration held a meeting with community leaders and assured them of fulfilling all their demands, including handing over the case to the National Investigation Agency (NIA), Rs 11 crore and a government job to the kin. The administration and community leaders also signed an 11-point agreement in this regard.

However, Gogamedi’s brother and wife rubbished this “agreement”. Addressing protesters, Gogamedi’s wife Sheela Shekhawat, who is also associated with SRRKS, said: “Your dada (Gogamedi) used to say he has a Sukhdev Singh in every home in every street. So is that Sukhdev ready? Today jackals have killed a lion. We have lost a diamond.”

Employing expletives for the murderers, she said that her husband “never took an assurance on a letterhead, aapko taal thokni hai apni behen ke liye (You have to be ready for your sister). Today my jholi is empty, it will be filled only with their death. You have to promise me to not move till this campaign concludes. Ugr bhi kar sakte hain (We can turn it violent too). You will have to support me. Had you (administration) given security earlier, we wouldn’t have had to see this day. I call upon Rajputs from all across India… there will be a Rajasthan bandh tomorrow too. Promise me you won’t have to move till they are encountered.”

Meanwhile, a day after Rohit Godara, a member of the Lawrence Bishnoi gang, claimed responsibility for the murder, Punjab Police sources said they had alerted their counterparts in Rajasthan Police about a threat to Gogamedi’s life by members of the gang in February this year.

The office of Special DGP, Internal Security, Punjab, had written to DGP, Rajasthan, in this regard. Subsequently, Deputy IGP (Anti-Terrorism Squad) of Rajasthan had also sent a letter to the ADG Intelligence in March warning him of a prospective attack on Gogamedi.

The Punjab Police note read: “According to an input, notorious gangster Sampat Nehra of Bishnoi gang, who is currently lodged in Central Jail, Bathinda, has plans to kill Sukhdev Singh Gogamedi, president of the Rajput community group ‘Shree Rashtriya Rajput Karni Sena’ in order to incite religiously motivated riots in the state of Rajasthan.”

The input further revealed that Nehra had arranged an AK-47 to accomplish the task through his associates outside the jail.

As per Jaipur Additional Commissioner of Police K C Bishnoi, connections of both main accused Rohit and Nitin with Rohit Godara or anyone else would be clear only once they are caught.

ACP Bishnoi said that both had prior cases against them: Rohit has at least three cases – under the Arms Act, POCSO, and sections of assault. He was arrested in October and was out on bail. He is a native of Makrana in Nagaur and was living in Jaipur.

Nitin Fauji, police said, is an Army man hailing from Mahendragarh in Haryana. Following a police case on November 11 in which he was wanted, he escaped to Rajasthan to hide and came in touch with gangsters here, as per ACP Bishnoi.

The ACP said that the other person killed in the incident, Naveen, was also an accomplice to the duo, “He was the one who hired the vehicle and took the assailants to Gogamedi’s home because entry was not allowed (easily) from a security point of view. He too was killed since he was the connecting link. He had met Gogamedi two-three times earlier too, after approaching senior and reputed members of the community. On Tuesday, too, he had approached senior members of the community for help in being allowed in Gogamedi’s home.”