After row, accused removed from NGO

MEERUT:A key suspect in the 2018 mob violence in which a police inspector was killed in Uttar Pradesh’s Bulandshahr has been expelled from an organisation that oversees the prime minister’s welfare schemes.

Shikhar Agarwal’s expulsion on Saturday from the Pradhan Mantri Jan Kalyankari Yojna Jagrukta Abhiyan came after a photograph showing him with a Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) leader went viral. In the photograph, he was purportedly being felicitated by Bulandshahr BJP president Anil Sisodia at an event on July 14.

Agarwal and five others are accused in the 2018 Bulandshahr violence in which police inspector Subodh Kumar Singh died after he was attacked by a mob armed with firearms and sharp weapons. The officer had gone to the area to restore calm after violence had erupted over rumours of cow slaughter. The accused is currently out on bail.

“I came to know from media that Shikhar was an accused in the violence that killed inspector Subodh. The matter was discussed with the organisation’s senior officials and Shikhar has been expelled. Now, he has no association with the organisation,” said Priyatam Kumar Prem, district president of the Jan Kalyankari Yojna Jagrukta Abhiyan, Bulandshahr.

Prem also claimed that BJP’S Bulandshahar district unit president Sisodia was present at the function as chief guest and the PMJYJA had no links with BJP. Other BJP leaders also distanced themselves from Agarwal.

Interestingly, members of advisory panel of the body overseeing implementation of the schemes includes names of senior party leaders and ministers like Shyam Jaju, Ramesh Pokhariyal Nishank, Narendra Tomar, Giriraj Singh and Dharmendra Pradhan, among others.

Congress leader and member of party’s strategic and planning committee Imran Masood said, “Appointing a violence accused to an important post was an attempt to glorify him, which can’t be accepted”.