India: Jharkhand BJP leader shot dead

Ranchi, Sep 22 (PTI) A BJP leader was shot dead in Jharkhand's Ranchi district on Wednesday, police said.

Jeetram Munda, the party's Scheduled Tribe Morcha president of Ranchi Rural district, was shot dead by unidentified motorcycle-borne assailants while he was coming out of a roadside eatery in Ormanjhi police station area in the evening, an officer said.

The 35-year-old BJP leader was rushed to a nearby hospital, where doctors declared him dead, he said, adding that a manhunt has been launched to nab the accused people.

Union minister Arjun Munda, who visited the medical establishment, said that the killing was an outcome of administrative failure and demanded a thorough inquiry into the murder.

"The slain BJP leader was attacked in the past too, and had applied for a license to keep a firearm for safety. However, the state government neither provided him with security nor with a license. Chief Minister Hemant Soren should order a thorough probe and make public the administrative lapses," the Union Tribal Affairs Minister said.