Shoe hurled at BJP’s GVL Rao at party HQ, cops say attacker is from Kanpur

lok-sabha-elections

Updated: May 02, 2020 19:52 IST

A man hurled a shoe at BJP leader GVL Rao during a media briefing at the party headquarters in national capital Delhi on Thursday. GVL Rao and other BJP leaders were addressing the media on the decision to name Sadhvi Pragya Singh Thakur as the party candidate from Bhopal when the man threw the shoe.

Rao was criticizing the Congress at the briefing, accusing the opposition party of defaming Hindus by framing “false cases” on Hindutva activists including Sadhvi Pragya Singh Thakur. The man who had got himself a front-row seat at the briefing threw the shoe around this time.

He was immediately escorted out by security personnel at the BJP office and handed over to the police.

Police said the man who hurled shoe has identified himself as Dr Shakti Bhargava from Kanpur. His identity is being verified. Medical examination has been done. A joint team of Intelligence Bureau and Delhi Police Special Cell and Security wing is questioning him to ascertain how he gained entry, the purpose of his visit and why he threw shoe on the BJP leader.

“No complaint has been received from BJP as of now. No case has been registered yet,” said deputy commissioner of police (central) Mandeep Singh Randhawa.

“This is a condemnable act by the Congress. This is yet another attempt by a Congress-inspired person who comes here to show the same kind of mentality,” Rao said after the attack.

The BJP has fielded Thakur as its candidate from Bhopal Lok Sabha seat against senior Congress leader Digvijaya Singh. Thakur is an accused in the Malegaon bomb blast case, which is being heard by a National Investigation Agency court.

The case was first probed by Maharashtra anti-terrorist squad. The NIA took over the case in 2011.

The NIA, in its chargesheet filed in 2016, said the witnesses on whose testimony a case was made out against her had retracted their statements. The court, however, rejected the NIA’s plea to drop charges against Thakur.

Thakur is currently out on bail in the Malegaon blast case.

She had formally joined the BJP earlier this week and named candidate from Bhopal, which has been a bastion for the party. The BJP has not lost Bhopal Lok Sabha seat since 1989. Bhopal Lok Sabha seat goes to the polls on May 12 in the sixth phase of the parliamentary elections.