Bahadurgarh/Jhajjar: It was a scene straight out of a Bollywood movie. While driving his uncle, the Indian National Lok Dal’s (INLD) late Haryana chief Nafe Singh Rathee, at around 5:20 pm Sunday, Rakesh saw a car trailing them and tried to speed up, but had to stop at a railway crossing.
Two men allegedly got out of the car behind him and rapped firmly on the window. When the panes were rolled down, the attackers allegedly began to shoot — the two outside the car first and then some others from the car behind them.
Minutes later, 66-year-old Rathee and Jai Kishan, his close associate of 40 years, were dead. It was an ambush, an eyewitness told ThePrint on the condition of anonymity.
“I was at the railway crossing in my car and was on my phone. I saw the chief’s car. After a few seconds, the firing started. I put my head down. They kept firing indiscriminately and even checked if Nafe Singh Rathee had died,” this eyewitness said.
Rakesh and a bodyguard who is undergoing treatment were “spared”. “They came to my window and said — ‘We are sparing you. Go and tell them that if anyone goes to court against Naresh Kaushik, Karambir Rathee, Ramesh Rathee, Satish Rathee, Gaurav Rathee, Kamal, and Rahul, we won’t spare them’,” Rakesh, who’s currently undergoing treatment at a hospital, said in the complaint to the police.
Nineteen bullet shells were found at the crime scene, according to police sources.
Fifteen people have been named in the FIR in the case, which ThePrint has seen. Prominent among these are BJP MLA Naresh Kaushik, Bahadurgarh Municipal Council chairperson Saroj Rathee’s husband Ramesh Rathee, Karambir Rathee, his son Kamal and nephew Kaushik, former minister Mange Ram Rathee’s son Satish Numberdar and grandson Gaurav, former chairman of the council Virender Rathi, his son Sandeep Rathi, and council vice-chairman Paleram Sharma.
However, no arrests have been made so far.
The Opposition has claimed that it was a “political murder”. In his statement on 26 February, the INLD’s lone MLA in Haryana’s 90-member assembly, Abhay Singh Chautala, said that the names mentioned by Nafe Singh’s family were all “BJP office bearers”.
At a press conference that he held Wednesday, Kaushik, the BJP’s former MLA from Bahadurgarh, denied any involvement, claiming that naming him in the FIR was a “politically motivated” act and even adding that there was a “threat” to his own life.
However, a look at claims and counterclaims in connection with the killing reveals a complex web of towering political ambitions and souring friendships. At the heart of this is a dispute over a 640-sq-yard plot.
At the Rathee residence, Sheela, the politician’s wife, is inconsolable.
“I got a call around 5:45 pm saying that my husband was no more. I don’t know who killed him and why they did so. They pierced his body with a dozen bullets,” Sheela told ThePrint, sitting among a group of grieving women.
ThePrint tried reaching Karambir Rathee’s daughter-in-law Saroj, current chairperson of Bahadurgarh Municipal Council, by phone for a comment. This report will be updated if and when she responds.
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Text-book gang hit job
According to police sources, the murder bore all the hallmarks of a typical hit job carried out by gangs: intricate planning, prior knowledge of the politician’s routes, and the “cold-blooded” execution.
“This appears to be the work of a gang. Several members and key associates have been questioned. We are investigating all angles. Prima facie, it appears to be a hit job by gangsters. Only after the five shooters are arrested will the motive be clear,” a senior officer from the Haryana Police who didn’t want to be named told ThePrint.
Haryana’s Bahadurgarh, like the outskirts of Delhi, is notorious for gang activities. While several gangsters are currently lodged in different jails, ThePrint has previously reported that the gangs continue to function for two main reasons — key members based outside India and those lodged in jails have access to mobile phones.
For instance, five members of the Lawrence Bishnoi gang were arrested in July 2022 in a crackdown by the Bahadurgarh Special Task Force.
According to sources, several of the usual suspects — members of the Lawrence Bishnoi, Kala Jathedi, Kapil Sangwan, and Himanshu Bhau gangs — were questioned. Sangwan’s brother Jyoti Baba was among those who questioned.
On Wednesday evening, Sangwan, who’s currently based in the UK, claimed responsibility for the killing. In his post on Instagram, he alleged that the politician had ties with Manjeet Mahal, a rival gangster.
“He backed Mahal in the murder of my brother-in-law and friends,” Sangwan, originally from Najafgarh, an area on the outskirts of Delhi notorious for gang activities, wrote in his post.
Rathee’s son Jitender, however, disputes the claim, arguing that the family had never received extortion calls from any gangsters. Jitender is a councillor of the Bahardurgarh Municipal Council.
“It has been done by Karambir Rathee, Naresh Kaushik, and others. They have always wanted to get rid of our father — for the land and because my father is a renowned political figure here. They hired contract killers for this,” Jitender said.
Politics, land & friends-turned-foes
Policemen in front of Nafe Singh Rathee’s house in Bahadurgarh | Bismee Taskin | ThePrint
In the bylines of Bahadurgarh’s Jatwara Mohalla, where Nafe Singh’s two-storeyed building stands, residents whisper the tales of the Rathee versus Rathee fight— a saga of two powerful families turned against each other and a litany of complaints and cross-complaints.
Before 2018, the families of Karambir Rathee and Nafe Singh Rathee’s were considered close. Both men had been elected councillors and had served as chairpersons of the Bahadurgarh Municipal Council.
Karambir’s nephew is Ramesh Rathee, a BJP leader. His wife Saroj is the council’s current chairperson.
“Nafe Singh had helped Karambir enter politics. The families used to be close but political ambition came in between them,” a source close to the two families said. “The relationship between them grew strained over time. The land dispute made things worse.”
Nafe Singh Rathee was associated with the INLD’s first family, the Chautalas, for over three decades. Following his murder, Abhay Singh Chautala accused authorities of having ignored the threat to Rathee’s life.
“I hold the state government responsible for this because six months ago, Nafe Singh Rathee told me that the police informed him that his life was in danger and he could be attacked anytime. I spoke to the SP (Bahadurgarh Superintendent of Police) about it. He (Nafe Singh) also wrote to the SP, Chief Minister Manohar Lal Khattar, and DG (Haryana’s director general of police) that they must investigate this and provide him with security, but nothing was done” Chautala said.
Despite being close to the Chautalas, Nafe Singh was overlooked for the 2014 state assembly elections. Upset, he joined the BJP but eventually returned to the INLD in 2018.
It was around this time that Karambir was appointed the INLD’s Jhajjar district president.
In 2020, Nafe Singh Rathee was appointed INLD’s Haryana chief despite having lost the assembly election the year before. Karambir, meanwhile, joined the BJP.
The 640-square-yard plot of land in the middle of the Rathee family controversy was part of a larger 32 bighas in Bahadurgarh’s DIG Colony purchased together by the two families in 1999. While the rest of the land has now been disposed of, the disputed land is the subject of ongoing court litigation.
According to Nafe Singh’s son Jitender, political rivalries between the two families began before the 2019 assembly election.
“Last year, Ramesh and (Karambir’s son) Kamal entered the property and beat up Sonu, a distant relative of ours whom we had given the (disputed) plot,” Jitender said. In October 2022, Nafe Singh Rathee’s wife Sheela was booked for forging documents to install electric meters on the disputed plot. In January of the following year, Jitender was arrested in connection with the case. The same month, Nafe Singh and five others were booked for abetting the suicide of Jagdish Numberdar, a local BJP leader and son of former minister Mange Ram Numberdar.
Nafe Singh Rathee was granted bail in the case but his gun licence was revoked. “The conspiracy to kill him started then. We received multiple inputs about threats to our lives but the authorities didn’t do anything,” Jitender told ThePrint.
Meanwhile, another FIR was lodged against Jitender and his relative, Sonu, in Uttar Pradesh’s Muzaffarnagar. That case was in connection with chain snatching, Jitender said.
Last year, Uttar Pradesh Police arrested Karambir’s younger son, Kamal Rathee, on charges of attempted murder, assault, and criminal intimidation after a local court issued an arrest warrant against him.
Ramesh Rathee, too, was named in the case, which was based on a complaint lodged by Sonu. At that time, his wife Saroj accused Nafe Singh of filing “false” charges against them.
On his part, Jitender told ThePrint that all FIRs against his family were a “result of politics”. “This year too, they lodged two complaints against my father but the FIRs got cancelled,” he said.
At Nafe Singh’s home, Sheela weeps as she speaks about her husband.
“They have destroyed our family,” she told ThePrint. “Whatever the enmity, why would you unleash such horror? I just want the accused to be punished. I want the government to teach them a lesson so that they don’t dare do it with anyone else.”
(Edited by Uttara Ramaswamy)
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