A leader of the BJP’s youth wing allegedly shot himself at his girlfriend’s house in Bhopal on Tuesday night, after he was asked by the woman’s father to “prove his love by killing himself”. Although declared brain dead by doctors, he remains on ventilator support.
Police said Atul Lokhande, vice-president of the Bharatiya Janata Yuva Morcha (BJYM) for Arera Mandal, went to the woman’s house around 9.30 pm and shot himself in the head with a country-made revolver. His uncle, who was waiting outside in a car, rushed him to a private hospital in Shivaji Nagar with the woman’s help.
According to a Facebook post put up earlier by Lokhande, the woman’s father had told him to prove his love for her by killing himself. He allegedly promised to let the marriage happen if the youth survived, and if he did not, they could always unite in their next birth.
Lokhande’s post went on to state that there was no point in living without the woman he loved, and requested that nobody blame her because it was a decision he had taken on his own accord. It also provided some advice on how the youth’s parents should treat his siblings following his death.
As many as 40 photographs of Lokhande and the woman during their outings together were attached to the post.
The BJYM leader’s friends said he had been in a relationship with the woman, a bank employee, for the last 13 years. When her father initially refused to give him her hand in marriage, Lokhande threatened him. This did not go down well with the woman, who stopped taking his calls.
Soon after the incident, MP Nagar shifted the woman and her family to a safer location as a precautionary measure. Deputy inspector general Dharmendra Choudhary said they are examining the circumstances that led to the youth’s suicide, said a report by Hindustan Times.
Nobody has been booked in connection with the incident so far.