With a BJP government assuming charge in Uttar Pradesh soon, Bishahra village in Dadri is again talking of the September 2016 killing of Mohammad Akhlaq.
Akhlaq was lynched over rumours of cow slaughter. The families of the murder accused believe that a BJP government will not oppose bail for those lodged in jail.
“The Samajwadi Party government was biased against us in the way the case of cow slaughter was handled by the investigative agencies. That is why a false case has been filed against our children for doing something in which the entire crowd took part. Cow is an emotional matter, and if someone kills a cow, then it is bound to make a Hindu’s blood boil,” said Om Kumar, an electrician and father of two of the accused, Saurav and Gaurav. Mr. Kumar expressed hope that the “investigative agencies will now look at the case in a fresh way and not be biased against the innocent children and oppose their bail.”
Sanjay Rana, a local BJP leader whose son and nephew are among the accused, said people expected that the BJP’s victory would “lead to justice in both the cases”.
“Residents of Bishahra voted for the BJP in the hope that their innocent children would get justice and get bail and also that the cow, which we consider our mother, killed by Akhlaq would get ‘justice’,” he said.
Cow slaughter case
Last year, the Greater Noida police registered a case of alleged cow slaughter against Mohammad Akhlaq, his wife, Ikraman, mother, Asghari, brother Jaan Mohammad, daughter, Shaishta, and son, Danish, under the U.P. Cow Protection Act, 1955.
Later, the Allahabad High Court granted immunity from arrest to them till the “conclusion of police investigation” in the alleged cow slaughter case. The court had refused to stay the arrest of Jaan Mohammad.
BJP leaders like Sangeet Som and Yogi Adityanath had raised the issue of cow slaughter and the SP’s alleged bias towards “cow killers”.
