RAJE TROLLED FOR TWEET ON LYNCHING
Breaking her silence on the lynching of social activist Zafar Hussein in Pratapgarh on Friday, Rajasthan chief minister Vasundhara Raje on Sunday tweeted that the “demise” was extremely unfortunate.
However, she also indicated that the death was not a murder by retweeting a tweet posted by inspector general (IG) Udaipur that scientific evidence did not point to murder.
A group of government officials allegedly beat to death 55-year-old Hussein, a social activist and CPI-ML member, for trying to stop them from photographing women defecating in public in a Rajasthan town on Friday. The name in his Aadhaar card, however, was spelt as Jafar Khan. Commenting on the incident, Raje tweeted Sunday: “The demise of Zafar Khan ji in Pratapgarh is extremely unfortunate. Investigation is on - justice shall prevail.” But her choice of words in the tweet drew a couple of sharp reactions.
Rajasthan Congress president Sachin Pilot took a swipe at Raje’s tweet by retweeting that “killed would have been a far more appropriate word, and going by previous lynching incidents, justice is unlikely to prevail”.
Senior journalist Shekhar Gupta also hit out, tweeting: “When a lawfully elected chief minister, sworn to rule based on the Constitution, can’t call a murder a murder, it’s time to cry.”
Five municipal council officials — including the commissioner — were out on a morning round to photograph people defecating in open when Zafar objected, local residents said. Police have registered a case of murder against the five officials. “We are investigating the case and no arrests have been made so far,” said Pratapgarh station house office Mangilal Bishnoi.