One BJP MLA says the accused are innocent...
Two of the three accused arrested by the Alwar police for lynching Rakbar Khan are “innocent and should be released immediately,” BJP MLA from Ramgarh (Alwar) Gyandev Ahuja has said.
“Police arrested the duo – Dharmendra Yadav and Paramjeet Singh Sardar – by deceit as they were first asked to accompany them to the police station to register the report. They are just trying to take revenge (on gau rakshaks). These two people were waiting for the police to appear at the crime scene. They would have fled had they been guilty. I don’t know about the third accused,” Ahuja said.
Earlier, Inspector general of police (Jaipur range) Hemant Priyadarshi had said that suspects were taken to police station from the spot and “were later arrested after we found their involvement.” Investigation is being done to find other culprits.
The third accused, Naresh Singh, was arrested on Sunday and all the three have been remanded in police custody for five days.
Ahuja said he had spoken to state home minister Gulabchand Kataria about the “wrongful arrest” and demanded their release.
Asked about statement of Aslam Khan, who was accompanying Khan and had managed to flee, that those in the mob were shouting “we are MLA’s men,” Ahuja said it was a conspiracy hatched by Alwar police as he had openly blamed them for the Khan’s death.
“This statement recorded by the police is nothing but a conspiracy to frame me. Aslam ran away from the spot and went straight to his village that is 25 km away. Which mob shouts “we are MLA’s men.” This is an absurd allegation,” the MLA said.
Ahuja denied that Nawal Kishor Sharma, a local VHP leader who was allegedly a part of the mob, was his protégé. “I know thousands of people in Alwar, which is my constituency. That does not mean that they are my men,” he said.
On the accusation that BJP and some MLAs like him were trying to use the lynching incident to create polarisation in the run up to the state elections slated later this year, Ahuja said, “It’s an absolutely false charge. In fact, it is the conspiracy of the Congress that wants to give BJP a bad name.”
Ahuja said while he would not like to comment on RSS leader Indresh Kumar’s statement, he was of the view that cow smuggling had to be stopped if such lynching incidents, which he said were unfortunate, are to be stopped.
Kumar has said if the cow slaughter was stopped, the incidents of lynching will automatically stop.
On what evidence he had that the police had beaten up Khan, Ahuja said that he had all the evidence that was needed. “The photos of Khan in police van when he was conscious and appeared to be not seriously injured have already been shared on social media. Just wait and watch. The truth will come out,” he said.
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