Accused shifted agenda from reservation to destruction, reveals CBI chargesheet

CONTAINS TESTIMONIES OF OFFICIALS POSTED IN ROHTAK, TRANSCRIPTS OF PHONE CALLS MADE BETWEEN THOSE ACCUSED OF VIOLENCE

ROHTAK: The CBI chargesheet containing testimonies of officials posted in Rohtak during the Jat agitation and transcripts of phone calls made between those accused of violence has bolstered the state government’s claim of a larger conspiracy behind the large-scale violence that rocked the state for three consecutive days in February 2016.

The CBI, which is probing the cases of loot and arson at Haryana finance minister Captain Abhimanyu’s house in Rohtak, has named 51 people in its chargesheet submitted in the court and added 11 new names, including those of Jat leader Ashok Balhara and son of former CM Bhupinder Singh Hooda’s aide Krishna Murti Hooda.

However, it has mainly indicted advocate Sudeep Kalkal and Manoj Duhan for provoking the protesters to resort to violence by spreading false rumors of attack on Jats by non-jats.

Deposing before the CBI on April 11, the then Rohtak deputy commissioner, DK Behera, said knowing Kalkal’s influence on protesters, he had asked him to convey to them that the government had accepted their demand of reservation and that BJP MP Raj Kumar Saini will tender his apology.

“He, however, misled the protesters instead,” Behera added.

“Kalkal wanted to visit the protesters near Capt Abhimanyu’s house with my permission to convince the agitators about acceptance of their demands, but he played the mischief by misguiding me,” Behera said.

“He did not pass over the information to agitators about the government accepting their demands, but spread a wrong information that some protesters were made hostage by cops inside Abhimanyu’s house,” he added.

“This information was false as it was found that cops were not even present at Abhimanyu’s house,” Behera said.

The then Rohtak deputy commissioner further said he had not got any intelligence input about Kalkal’s plan to gherao Abhimanyu’s house.

In transcripts of phone calls made by Kalkal and Duhan to each other and others, the two have been caught dividing protesters on caste lines and provoking them to target non-jat properties.

They have also been caught asking protesters to intensify the stir and focus on destruction rather than reservation.

“We have to topple this government. We don’t have any other agenda. We will see about reservation later,” Duhan had said while speaking to an advocate.