‘Forensic report in Dadri case manipulated’

Congress leader Digvijaya Singh on Friday charged that the latest forensic report, which said the meat recovered from the house of Dadri lynching victim Mohammad Akhlaq was beef, was ‘manipulated.’

Speaking to reporters on the sidelines of an event here, Mr. Singh recalled that the first forensic test had said that it was not beef. Now, a year later, another test report had said it was beef. “It’s 100 per cent case of manipulation,'” he said.

He charged that it was the fundamentalist strategy of the Bharatiya Janata Party to polarise votes on religious lines ahead of the Uttar Pradesh elections.

In September last year, Mohammad Akhlaq was lynched by a mob on suspicion that he and his family members stored beef.

Replying to a question on the Gulbarg Society case, Mr. Singh said that in the cases relating to the 2002 riots, “we had a situation where prosecution and defence were on the same side.” “It’s a fact that the Special Investigation Team and the courts have held that it was the handiwork of the Rashtriya Swawamsevak Sangh and the Bajrang Dal activists. But no evidence was found against BJP leaders. How could they if the defence and the prosecution were on the same side?'' he asked.

He criticised the National Investigation Agency for giving a clean chit to Pakistan in the Pathankot attack case.