The Uttar Pradesh government, in its comprehensive report to the Centre, has said the violence in Mathura last week following efforts by the police to evict encroachers, was the “result of the failure of local authorities to assess the situation.” The State government also shunted out the District Magistrate and the Senior Superintendent of Police of Mathura on Monday.
The report to the Union Home Ministry also said the police were only “complying with the court orders” to evict encroachers belonging to the Azad Bharat Vidhik Vaicharik Kranti Satyagrahi from the Jawahar Bagh park. In the clashes that followed, 24 persons, including two policemen, were killed. The leader of the encroachers, Ramvriksh Yadav, was among the dead.
An official said the U.P. police were also probing the alleged Naxal link of the outfit, given the recovery of a huge quantity of arms and explosives from the park. “The U.P. government has sent a factual report on the incident. They have narrated the sequence of events which led a police party to evict the squatters as per directions of the court,” said a senior government official.
The report said the police was forced to act before they had made adequate preparations following an attack by the cult members.
Rejects BJP charge
The State government also rejected the BJP’s charge that there was political pressure on the police to not evict the encroachers, who claimed to owe allegiance to Netaji Subhas Chandra Bose, and had moved into the 280-acre park in 2014.
Senior U.P. Minister and Samajwadi Party leader Shivpal Yadav, who is also Chief Minister Akhilesh Yadav’s uncle, was accused by BJP president Amit Shah of patronising members of the Azad Bharat outfit.
(With inputs from PTI)
