Bajrang Dal man is main accused in the Bulandshahr killing

BULANDSHAHR/LUCKNOW/ETAH: Police arrested four men on Tuesday and booked 28 people for murder and rioting in connection with the violence that roiled Uttar Pradesh’s Bulandshahr a day before and left a police inspector and a local resident dead.

Additional director general of police (law and order) Anand Kumar identified those arrested as Chaman, Ram, Satish (only first names were given) and Ashish Chauhan, and said the prime suspect in Monday morning’s violence, triggered by allegations of cow slaughter, is a man named Yogesh Raj.

The additional director general of police said three others were taken into custody for interrogation and that raids were underway across the state to arrest Raj and others involved in the violence.

“Those arrested were found to be leading the crowd after being identified in a video. About 40-50 others, who are unidentified, were involved in the incident and police is confident of identifying them with the video evidence,” he added.

Police refused to confirm Raj’s political affiliations, but the regional coordinator of the Bajrang Dal, the youth wing of the Vishva Hindu Parishad (VHP), Balraj Singh Dungar, said that Raj was the convenor of the Bulandshahr unit of the Dal. “We are with our leaders and workers,” said Dungar.

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