A deliberate and motivated effort is being made by the Uttar Pradesh government to concentrate attention on the “cow killing” in Bulandshahr, a delegation of CPI(M) Polit Bureau, comprising Brinda Karat and Subhashini Ali, noted in its report after a visit to the area, a month after the incident. The delegation has demanded a high court-monitored probe into the matter.
“The SIT is working under pressure of the State Government and cannot be expected to have any impartial probe,” it has noted. It said the second round of arrests for so-called cow slaughter is as deeply flawed as the first round of arrests in which all those named by the key conspirator, Yogesh Raj, were arrested and within a fortnight had to be released after being found innocent.
The evidence to link many people who have been arrested for the crime is suspect, the delegation said. Like Arvind Sharma, son of Khemchand Sharma, president of the Brahmin Samaj. “His only crime is that his best friend is a Muslim, Mehboob, a well-known social worker of the area. Everyone we met in the area was astonished by these arrests,” the delegation said.
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Muslims with licensed guns are being targeted. Nadeem, a national rifle shooter who has a licensed gun, has also been arrested, it found.
The delegation has demanded that for an impartial probe it is essential that it should be judicially monitored.