Bulandshahr, Dec 4: The local police have booked cases against members of the Bharatiya Janata Party, Vishwa Hindu Parishad and Bajrang Dal today for the brutal murder of police inspector Subodh Kumar Singh during Monday during a violent protest staged by the Hindutva extremists in the name of cow in west Uttar Pradesh’s Bulandshahr district.
Bajrang Dal’s Bulandshahr district chief Yogesh Raj has been made the number one accused for the riot and has been booked for murder and attempt to murder under sections 302 and 307 of the Indian Penal Code, respectively, as well as various sections of arson and damaging public property.
Till now, four persons have been arrested for the violence, in which another youngster named Sumit was also killed during police's retaliatory firing. He was named in the FIR along with 27 others and there are 60 unnamed individuals as well.
Apart from Yogesh Raj, among those named in the FIR are BJP youth wing member Shikhar Agrawal and VHP member Upendra Raghav.
"We will arrest more people today and will gather more evidence. The SIT team that has been formed is looking closely into the matter," said Prashant Kumar, ADG, Meerut Zone.
Why the cops left Subodh Kumar alone?
Subodh Kumar Singh, who was known for honesty and impartial policing, had earned the wrath of Sangh Parivar when he became the investigating officer in the 2015 lynching of Mohammad Akhlaq by Hindutva extremists at Bisadha village in Greater Noida’s Dadri. He was transferred half way through.
The 47-year-old police inspector was killed by a bullet in the head and had suffered wounds from hard and blunt objects, the post-mortem has revealed. The bullet pierced his head near the left eyebrow, the report said. "The entry of the bullet is near the left eyebrow. As per post-mortem report it appears to be a .32 bore," the ADG (law and order) Anand Kumar said.
A video showing the body of a policeman slumped to ground from the seat of a police vehicle surrounded by some people came to light after the incident. But the police refused to confirm if it was Singh in the clip. However, a senior police official requesting anonymity said, "In all likelihood, it appears to be Subodh Kumar.”
Prashant Kumar said an SIT has also been formed to investigate why the police personnel left Subodh Kumar alone after he was shot.
The violence had started around 10 am in Siana area in the district where a major three-day Tableeghi Jama’at Ijtima had concluded on Monday afternoon. The police, however, said the incident was not related in any way to the congregation.
"The incident occurred 40-50 km away from the congregation site. Some miscreants were behind the violence and action is being taken against them in accordance with law," the Bulandshahr Police tweeted on Monday evening.
Expressing grief over the incident, Chief Minister Yogi Adityanath said strict action would be taken against the guilty after the probe reports are received. He also said financial assistance would be extended to the affected persons.
The incident led to a political slugfest, with the Congress hitting out at the chief minister, saying he should first set his own house in order before "gallivanting" around the country for election campaign.
Pre-planned conspiracy?
Meanwhile, Om Prakash Rajbhar, President of the Suheldev Bharatiya Samaj Party, has called the Bulandshahr violence which culminated in the murder of a cop as a pre-planned conspiracy by Sangh Parivar.
“This is a pre-planned conspiracy by VHP, Bajrang Dal and RSS, now police is even naming some BJP members. Why protest happened on the same day as Muslim Ijtema event? It was an attempt to disturb the peace,” Rajbhar said.
The officer's sister said he had been killed because he had investigated the mob lynching of a Muslim man Mohammad Akhlaq in Dadri in 2015.
‘He taught us not to be communal’
The aggrieved family members Subodh Kumar Singh, who are shell-shocked by the coldblooded murder, recall that he taught them to be secular and not to hate the followers of any other religion including Muslims.
One of the two sons of Subodh Kumar Singh had just finished his Class 12 exams when he received the news of murder. "He wanted us to be good citizen. He wanted us to be people who didn't incite violence in the name of religion," said the teen.
Recalling his last conversation with his father, he said: "I had spoken to him one day before the incident. He was telling me to work on my weak subjects and advised me to focus more on the subject in which I received fewer marks during the last examination."
His older brother wept at his father's funeral. "He was a very good human being. The last time I talked to him, he asked me if I had food. He lost his life in the line of duty," he said, barely able to speak. "Sometimes, he would be told not to investigate some case...but he always did."
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