‘Order of goons, moral custodians in Raj’
JAIPUR/ AJMER: Congress leader Sachin Pilot Thursday questioned the silence of the Vasundhara Raje dispensation in Rajasthan over a series of hate crimes, including the murder of a Muslim migrant labourer in the Rajsamand district, and termed the state government a patron of “goons, vigilantes, and selfstyled moral custodians”.
“Law and order in Rajasthan can be described as an order of goons and vigilantes under the present government as no one – women, Dalits, minority community — is safe in the state,” Pilot, the state Congress president, said in Ajmer.
Pilot said there was a complete breakdown of law and order in the state.
“There’s no fear of police among goons and anti-social elements. They are acting at will, at places of their choice,” he said.
The former MP was reacting to the gruesome murder of Mohammed Afrazul, a migrant worker from West Bengal, who was hacked with an axe before being burnt alive in Rajsamand district.
The alleged perpetrator of the crime, Shambu Lal Regar, who was later arrested, made a video of his brutal act and uploaded it on social media.
In the video, Regar is seen warning that those indulging in ‘love jihad’ will meet the same fate.
In another video, which has also gone viral, Regar is seen justifying the act as an endeavour to save a girl from ‘love jihad’.
Pilot also attacked the state government over the killing of a man in Alwar by a police bullet.
The man, a suspected cow smuggler was killed in retaliatory firing by police while they were transporting bovines in a truck.
The Congress leader demanded that chief minister Vasundhara Raje come out and speak clearly that such hate crimes had no place in the state.
“She chooses not to speak,” he said, adding that her silence on such crimes points to patronage to perpetrators.
Home minister Gulab Chand Kataria, however, said the police acted swiftly to stop cow smugglers in Alwar after they had broken two barricades, and saved the cattle from being smuggled.
On Rajsamand, Kataria said it was sad and condemnable incident but added that police arrested the man in less than 24 hours of the crime.
Rajasthan BJP president Ashok Parnami, who is campaigning for the party in Gujarat, sought to put the Congress in the dock for not enforcing the law to prevent smuggling of cattle for slaughter.
“Congress did not enforce the law due to political reasons,” he added.