Union Minister for Culture Mahesh Sharma visited the family of the Dadri lynching accused Ravi Sisodia on Friday evening, after he died of renal failure in police custody.
The Minister tweeted a picture of his visit, along with the message: “Now Bisada [the village where the lynching took place and from where the victim and the accused hailed] will be settled.” The visit has created a controversy because the body of Sisodia, an accused in the lynching of Mohammad Akhlaque, was draped in the tricolour.
His family refused to cremate him without adequate compensation from the Uttar Pradesh government.
Dr. Sharma spoke to The Hindu on his visit and the controversy that has emerged from it. “I visited the family as Bisada is part of my constituency. As the representative of the area in Parliament, it is my social commitment,” he said. The situation at Bisada was “stressful;” at least 1,500 policemen were deployed there as the Sisodia family was on a fast, refusing to cremate the body. Had the situation not been controlled, there could have been clashes, he said.
Asked whether he had visited the family of Mohammad Akhlaque after the lynching, he said he was “one of the first to visit Mohammad Akhlaque’s family. I met his wife, and his brother had been admitted to Kailash Hospital [owned by Dr. Sharma] for 23 days, after which he recovered.”
Dr. Sharma did not comment on Sisodia’s body having been draped in the tricolour, an honour accorded only to martyrs.
‘No money was paid’He denied that he had offered money to Sisodia’s family, which was reportedly demanding Rs. 1 crore in compensation from the State government because he died in police custody. “That is a matter between the State government and the family. I have not offered any money to the family,” he said.
