A VISHWA Hindu Parishad (VHP) leader was shot dead by five men in Agra district’s Mantola area Thursday morning, police said. The victim’s brother named five persons — Shahrukh, Raja, Dilshad, Imtiyaz and Abid — as accused in the complaint filed at the Mantola police station.

Arun Kumar Mahaur, a Dalit and the VHP’s district vice-president, was returning to his furniture shop after offering prayers at a temple near Meer Hussaini crossing when shooters opened fire at him around 10.30 am.

Locals took Mahaur to Sarojini Naidu Medical College where doctors declared him dead on arrival. As news spread, hundreds of VHP, Bajrang Dal and BJP workers, along with some local leaders, gathered outside the hospital shouting slogans and sat on a dharna demanding that the accused be arrested without delay.

Later, Union Minister Ram Shankar Katheria and BJP MP Chaudhary Babu Lal (Fatehpur Sikri) visited Mahaur’s family. Soon after, the SSP and other top police officials, fearing a communal flare up in the Muslim-dominated area, rushed to the spot and, as a precautionary measure, got the markets in the Nai ki Mandi area closed.