Om Veer Singh Om Veer Singh

A BJP leader was gunned down in Muzaffarnagar by unidentified bike-borne assailants Tuesday, police said. , Om Veer Singh was vice president of Panchayat Prakoshth and was a former armyman.

The assailants, after killing the leader, decamped with his licenced revolver as well.

"Om Veer Singh was shot five times," Rakesh Singh Jolly, Superintendent of Police (Crime), told IANS.

Jolly also said that the 42-year-old victim was also into money-lending business and as per his daily schedule he was going to his village Meerapur when the incident took place.

Om Veer Singh tried to retaliate with his revolver, but the assailants fired a volley of shots at him and he slumped on the ground, dying almost immediately.

Police said that the motive behind the killing was yet to be ascertained, adding that the body has been sent for autopsy.

Angry supporters and villagers camped the state highway soon after the killing.

This is the second killing of a BJP leader in a week.

Vijay Pandit, a prominent leader of Noida was shot dead in Dadri area. He had earlier aired his apprehensions of being targeted, but the police did not heed his pleas, his supporters said.

Shops in Dadri continued to be shut for the fourth consecutive day in protest against Vijay Pandit's killing.