BJP and SGPC members demand security for Gurdev Raja

Jamshedpur: Bharatiya Janata Party leaders and members of Sakchi Gurudwara Prabandhak Committee (SGPC) today met senior superintendent of police (SSP) Amol Venukant Homkar and demanded security for Gurdev Singh Raja, a BJP leader and vice president of SGPC.

The BJP leaders and SGPC members said the arresting of a man, identified as Rajeev Pathak, with a loaded pistol at Sakchi yesterday, had revealed serious threat on the life of Raja. Police arrested Pathak, a resident of Uliyan, Kadma, with a pistol hidden under his trousers around 9 pm near Sakchi Bus Stand Number 9 close to Palang market.

An accomplice of Pathak, identified as Chandan Yadav, escaped from the scene, police said. Later, during interrogation, cops claimed to have found that the accused was planning to kill Raja.

The SSP assured the BJP leaders and SGPC members of taking measures to provide security to Raja, if he faced any, in view of yesterday�s incident. He said investigation was on into yesterday�s incident. Senior police officials including SP (city) Kartik S and DSP (city) KN Choudhary interrogated the accused at Sakchi police station.

Several police teams conducted raids across the city in search of aides of the accused. Vehicles were checked at different places across the city including Bistupur and Sakchi after the recovery of arms from the accused. Police officials said they were trying to find out if Pathak had come to kill Raja or someone else.