The Uttar Pradesh police on Thursday arrested another prime accused in the Bulandshahr mob violence case in which two persons, including police officer Subodh Kumar Singh, were killed.
Shikhar Agarwal, who is the BJP’s youth wing head of Bulandshahr, was arrested in Hapur, said the police. With this, the total number of persons arrested in connection with the mob violence and murder on December 3 had touched 36, said SP city Bulandshahr, Atul Srivastava.
“He [Shikhar Agarwal] is being questioned and on the basis of that, further action will be taken,” said the officer.
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Agarwal was among the key accused named in the FIR regarding the mob violence in Syana area of Bulandshahr over allegations of cow slaughter.
70 booked
More than 70 persons, some of them allegedly having links to the VHP and its youth wing Bajrang Dal, were booked on charges of murder, attempt to murder, rioting, sedition, damage to public property and dacoity, among others.
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Bajrang Dal activist Yogesh Raj, said to be the main accused in the mob violence case, was arrested earlier, after evading the police for a month.
While on the run, Agarwal had released a video from an undisclosed location and claimed he was innocent. Introducing himself as the Bulandshahr Yuva Morcha city president of the BJP, Agarwal called the deceased officer Subodh Kumar “corrupt” and accused him of siding with the Muslims.
He blamed the officer for creating the tense atmosphere in Syana. He said Subodh Kumar had stopped him and his friends from carrying the cow carcasses on a trolley to the police outpost to lodge an FIR and asked them to “bury those at the spot.”
He alleged that the officer then threatened to shoot him, adding that he left the spot after handing over the complaint given by Yogesh Raj to the authorities.