Hours after Prime Minister Narendra Modi broke his much criticised “silence” on the lynching of a Muslim in a Dadri village following a rumour that he ate and stored beef, the Samajwadi Party chief Mulayam Singh too came up with a statement.
Mr. Singh termed the public lynching of Akhlaq a “planned conspiracy.” Those behind the 2013 Muzaffarnagar riots were responsible for the Dadri killing too. “The information I have gathered is that three persons related to a particular party are behind the incident,” he told the media in Lucknow. His party would send a delegation to village, “after which it will become clear who these three people are.”
He promised action against those behind the lynching of Akhlaq. “We will do it even if we have to sacrifice the government in the process.”
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Nine people have so far been arrested in connection with the incident and seven of them are allegedly linked to Sanjay Rana, a local BJP leader. Mr. Rana’s son Vishal is one of the main accused. Mr. Rana has claimed that his son is innocent and that he is being framed by the government.
Sangeet Som, another BJP lawmaker who is also an accused in the 2013 Muzaffarnagar riots, is on the State government’s radar as well. The local administration of Dadri recommended legal action against Mr. Sangeet for violating the prohibitory orders under section 144 and allegedly making an inflammatory speech during his visit to the village. Mr. Sangeet had invoked Muzaffarnagar riots outside the very temple which was misused by the culprits to make the inflammatory announcement that resulted in the lynching.