CBI inquiry on Mathura if UP wants, says Rajnath
Union home minister Rajnath Singh on Sunday queered the pitch for the Akhilesh Yadav government in Uttar Pradesh, declaring the Centre was ready to order a CBI probe into the Mathura violence if the UP government sought it in writing.
“Everyone wants to know the truth behind the Mathura incident, and if the state government wants the entire truth to come out, they should request the Centre in writing and seek a CBI probe. We are ready for it”, he said, addressing a rally in Amroha.
In Mathura, the death toll from Thursday’s clashes between the Jawahar Bagh encroachers and the police rose to 29 Sunday, with two more people succumbing to their injuries, while Agra divisional commissioner
Chandra Kant began a probe on the circumstances that led to the clashes. Mr Kant said he would submit his report to the state government within a fortnight.
Mathura SSP Rakesh Singh said 45 cases were registered against 3,000 followers of a cult, Azad Bharat Vidhik Vaicharik Kranti Satyagrahi, which claims to owe allegiance to Netaji Subhas Chandra Bose. The home minister said it seemed there was something unknown about the entire episode. “There is a total collapse of law and order in Uttar Pradesh, and if the ( Union) home ministry could interfere directly, so many people would not have lost their lives,” he said.
The UP police are now probing Maoist angle in the Mathura clashes. According to an investigating official, they have seized mobile phones from Jawahar Bagh and the arrested people, with numbers “supposedly” belonging to Maoists. “We have shortlisted some numbers that supposedly belong to Maoists and we have put them on surveillance. We are also interrogating some close aides of Ram Vriksh Yadav, the mastermind of the clashes”, the official disclosed.
“Apparently, Ram Vriksh worked as a conduit for these groups, both for money and arms supply. There are a few numbers on which he had been regularly in touch. Before zeroing down on these people, we are tracking the numbers, their locations and conversations,” the official added.
The police believe that Ram Vriksh could not have single- handedly created this “empire” in Jawahar Bagh and neither did he have the resources to keep 3,000 odd people with him. “This is just not possible without external support— financial and otherwise”, the official added.
A huge amount of ammunition and explosives have been found during the combing operation at Jawahar Bagh.
The police have announced a reward of `5000 each for three aides of Ram Vriksh Yadav who are missing. The aides are Chandan Bose a. k. a. Chandan Gaur, Rakesh Gupta and Viresh.
The Maoist angle in the Mathura violence gains credence due to the fact that even 72 hours after the incident, 18 bodies remain unclaimed.
The police feel that the bodies could be of Maoists who were working with Ram Vriksh.