Overview
- The former MLA Atar Singh Bhadana was critically injured in a confrontation at a stone-crusher site in Bhonda village and died after being taken to Jaipur’s SMS Hospital late on Sunday, according to multiple local reports.
- Bhadana and his bodyguard Gagan Sharma were first treated at Weir health facilities before referral to higher hospitals, with Sharma remaining under treatment and Bhadana’s body held for post-mortem.
- Villagers say the violence grew out of a long-running dispute over a mining lease and alleged illegal extraction on pasture land that had produced repeated sit-ins and a roughly year-long shutdown of the crusher.
- Accounts differ on key facts: reports give varying numbers for those involved, some claim shots were fired while hospital doctors said they initially found no clear gunshot injury, and police have deployed extra forces and launched raids to arrest alleged attackers.
- The death came the same day protests over an alleged police assault on an RSS worker led to the suspension of six officers, fueling political criticism of the Rajasthan government and raising questions about local law-and-order response.