Indian home minister's relative shot dead in Modi's parliamentary constituency

A relative of Indian Home Minister Rajnath Singh was gunned down at a village in Prime Minister Narendra Modi's parliamentary constituency of Varanasi in the northern state of Uttar Pradesh late Tuesday night, a senior police official said Wednesday.

"The incident happened when the home minister's relative Arvind Singh, who owned a petrol pump, was returning home after dropping his wife at the airport. Singh's car was intercepted by some bike- borne assailants at Makhsudanpatti and then he was shot dead," he said, on condition of anonymity.

A massive manhunt has been launched to track down the criminals, the official said.

The state unit of the ruling Bharatiya Janata Party has slammed the government of Uttar Pradesh for the deteriorating law and order. Endi