Brahmin outfits stage protest, demand CBI probe
RAE BARELI KILLINGS Agitators seek CBI probe and sacking of Swami Prasad Maurya for his statement on the incident
Several organisations of the Brahmin community staged a demonstration near GPO here on Sunday in protest against the killing of five persons in Etaura Bujurg village of Rae Bareli on June 26. They clashed with police in a bid to stage protest at Vidhan Sabha Marg.
Three persons were lynched and two others were burnt alive during a group clash in Rae Bareli that was a fallout of long-drawn animosity between village head Ram Shri Yadav and his bête noire Rohit Shukla. The agitators demanded a CBI probe and sacking of PWD minister Swami Prasad Maurya for his controversial statement on the incident. They alleged he played down the killings of the Brahmins and tried to portray all five deceased as criminals.
Around 11am, a large number of agitators assembled at Gandhi statue, GPO, Hazratganj, led by Piyush Pandey of the Swarn Bharat Pariwar, an organisation of the Brahmin community. After staging a demonstration, agitators started moving towards the chief minister’s residence.
However, police have put up barricades. Agitators clashed with the cops in a bid to cross the barricading. In the ruckus, some of the agitators managed to reach gate number one of Vidhan Sabha and tried to enter the building. But security personnel foiled their attempts.
Police cane-charged the agitators after additional force reached at the spot. Thereafter, agitators reached Capitol Cinema and blocked the road, which resulted in a traffic jam.
When all attempts to pacify the agitators failed, police arrested many of them and sent them to Police Lines. There was another agitation over the issue at the Lakshman Mela ground in which former minister in SP government, Manoj Pandey, ex-MLA Pawan Pandey and BSP MLA from Chillupar assembly constituency, Gorakhpur, Vinay Shanker Tewari along with his supporters took part. Later, all of them went to Raj Bhawan to hand over a memorandum to Governor Ram Naik, demanding a CBI probe into Rae Bareli incident.