Ludhiana: Aam Aadmi Party (AAP) MLA from Ludhiana West Assembly seat Gurpreet Gogi Bassi was cremated with state honours. His son Vishwas Bassi lit the funeral pyre. Leaders from various parties from across the state, including Chief Minister Bhagwant Mann, reached the crematorium near KVM School to pay tribute to him.
Gogi died of a gunshot wound at around 12 o’clock on Friday night. According to family members, Gogi was cleaning his licensed pistol at home, when suddenly a bullet was fired.
A board of doctors conducted his postmortem at DMC hospital. Its videography was also done. According to sources, the bullet hit Gogi from the right side and came out from the left side.
According to the police, it is case of accident firing. “The incident occurred when Gogi was in his room and family members heard the gunshot. When they rushed to the room they found Gogi with bullet injury and rushed him to DMC Hospital but he died on the way,” said DCP Jaskaran Singh Teja.
The incident occurred around 12 a.m. soon after his return from a public function. His wife, who was in another room, heard the gunshots and found him lying in a pool of blood. He was rushed to the hospital with the help of security personnel where he was declared brought dead.
Gogi is survived by his wife Sukhchain Kaur Gogi, a son and daughter. Police Commissioner Kuldeep Chahal and Deputy Commissioner Jitendra Jorwal, too, rushed to the DMCH. The MLA’s death was confirmed by district AAP President Sharanpal Singh Makkar and the Commissioner of Police Kuldeep Singh Chahal.
Gogi had joined the AAP in 2022 and defeated two-time MLA Bharat Bhushan Ashu during the Assembly elections from the Ludhiana (West) Assembly constituency. Gogi was twice a Ludhiana Municipal Corporation councillor before becoming a legislator in 2022.
Before joining the AAP, he was president of Congress district (Urban). Last year, Gogi destroyed the foundation stone of a pipeline project in Buddha Nullah, for which he had laid the foundation stone in 2022. He had expressed frustration over the delays in the project and Vidhan Sabha speaker Kultar Singh Sandhwan had promised strict action against any hindrance to the clean-up project in response to the AAP legislator’s grievances.
Hours before his death, he had met with Sandhwan and AAP MP Sant Baba Balbir Singh Seechewal in Ludhiana for a cleanliness drive of Buddha Nullah.