Meerut, June 10: A 35-year-old local BJP leader was on Saturday found dead at his house in Govindpuri area under suspicious circumstances with a bullet wound to the chest, police said.

President of BJP's mahanagar (city) Mukesh Singhal said Nishant Garg had been active for the past five years, and was the social media in-charge of the regional unit (western UP) of the Bharatiya Janata Yuva Morcha (BJYM). Sonali Phogat Dies: BJP Leader and TikTok Star Passes Away Due to Heart Attack in Goa.

Garg's wife has claimed her husband committed suicide sometime early Saturday morning, said Senior Superintendent of Police Rohit Singh. In her statement to police, Sonia, the wife, said her husband got extremely drunk Friday night and beat her up too. Keshari Nath Tripathi Dies: Senior BJP Leader and Former West Bengal Governor Passes Away at 88.

At around 3 am, she left for her parent's house located at some distance from their house. At 6.30 am, when she returned, she saw Garg lying in a pool of blood with a bullet wound to the chest, police said.

When police reached the spot, they could not find any pistol by his body. However, when police inspector interrogated Sonia, she took out her husband's country-made pistol and mobile phone from an almirah, and handed them over to him.

The SSP said Sonia told police that when she got back home in the morning she got scared finding her husband dead and hid the pistol. Sonia could not tell where the country-made pistol came from, he said. An empty liquor bottle and a glass was also found from their room.