4 men falsely implicated for cow slaughter: Police
BULANDSHAHR Slain cop’s son alleges political pressure behind delay in arrest of accused
LUCKNOW: Two weeks after mob violence flared in Uttar Pradesh’s Bulandshahr following the discovery of cattle carcasses, the district police said four Muslim men arrested on cow slaughter charges had been falsely implicated in the case and would be released soon. On Tuesday, the police arrested the actual perpetrators.
Bulandshahr senior superintendent of police (SSP) Prabhakar Chowdhary confirmed to HT over phone on Wednesday that the four arrested on December 4 — Sarfuddin, Sajid, Asif and Nanhe — on the basis of a first information report (FIR) filed by Bajrang Dal district convenor, Yogesh Raj, were not involved in the case.
On December 3, mobs ran amok in Bulandshahr’s Syana area after cow carcasses were found in a field, leading to the death of a police inspector, Subodh Kumar Singh, and a village resident, Sumit Kumar. Raj is himself a key accused in the violence, and is on the run.
Chowdhary said interrogation of three men arrested in the case on Tuesday revealed that they were involved in hunting and shooting stray cows and had dumped the carcasses that led to the Syana flare-up.
Meanwhile, Singh’s son Abhishek Pratap Singh alleged that political pressure was behind the delay in arresting the three key accused -- Raj, Shikhar Agarwal (Bharatiya Janata Party’s Syana youth wing president) and Upendra Raghav (former president of Vishwa Hindu Parishad’s Syana unit).
Abhishek said the Special Investigation Team (SIT) constituted to probe the incident was yet to find the person who killed his father during the violence. “On December 3, lodging an FIR was delayed. The case was registered after 12 hours, which helped the three key accused to escape. They are still on the run,” he said.
A senior police officer assisting the SIT admitted that investigating officers were yet to identify the person who shot the
SSP SAID THE FOUR MEN HELD ON THE BASIS OF A FIRST INFORMATION REPORT (FIR) FILED BY BAJRANG DAL DISTRICT CONVENOR, YOGESH RAJ, WERE NOT INVOLVED IN THE CASE
inspector. “In the video footage available with us, a man is seen standing near the police inspector a few seconds before he was shot dead. However, the video quality is too poor to identify the person,” he said.
The police, however, appear to have solved the cow slaughters that led to the violence.
“The innocence of the four men arrested on December 4 was established after three others — Kala, Nadeem and Raees – were nabbed on Tuesday. These three men, along with four others (who are still on the run), were involved in cow slaughter in Mahaw village. They dumped the carcasses, the recovery of which led to the violence that killed Subodh Kumar Singh and Sumit Kumar,” Bulandshahr SSP Chowdhary said.
“We have ample evidence against these three men. A fourwheeler, knives, rope and a licenced double-barrel gun, which belonged to Nadeem, have been recovered. Nadeem’s gun was used to shoot stray cows in the jungle before slaughtering them,” he added.
Chowdhary said the police would submit a report under section 169 of the Criminal Procedure Code seeking the release of the four men. “A report is sent to the court for the release of a person if his involvement in a crime is not established during investigation,” he said.
Chowdhary said efforts were on to arrest four absconders, said to be among the key accused in the case. The police have registered an FIR against 27 people by name and 50-60 unidentified people in connection with the December 3 violence.
The accused who have been arrested include army man Jeetendra Singh alias Jeetu, Vishal Tyagi, Harendra Singh, Tinku alias Bhupesh, Guddu, Chhotu alias Avinash.
The family members of Sumit Kumar, who was also killed in the violence, met Uttar Pradesh chief minister Yogi Adityanath on Wednesday and demanded that the 21-year-old be declared a martyr, officials said.
Emerging from an hour-long meeting at Lok Bhawan here, the mother and sister of Sumit told reporters that Adityanath has assured them help. They are demanding compensation similar to what Singh’s family has received and the removal of Kumar’s name from the FIR on the violence. Singh’s widow has been given compensation of ₹40 lakh and his parents ₹10 lakh.