The family of Mohammed Afrazul, a Bengali migrant labourer who was burned and hacked to death last year, allegedly by Shambhulal Regar, has spoken out against the move to offer Regar a ticket for the upcoming 2019 Lok Sabha elections. The Uttar Pradesh Navnirman Sena has offered Regar the Agra ticket, a seat that is reserved for members of Scheduled Castes. The political outfit’s national president even claimed to News18 that Regar has accepted the offer.
Afrazul’s wife, Gul Bahar Bibi, told the Indian Express that Regar would avoid punishment if obtains a ticket. She said, “We want nothing but strong punishment for him. He has taken everything away from us and we want justice to prevail. No one should field a murderer like him from any seat. If he gets an election ticket, he will evade punishment and there will be chances that he might not get convicted at all. We don’t want that to happen”. She added, “He (Regar) wanted to frighten people of the country with his unpardonable act. But we are not scared. We will fight it till the end. We want to see him getting hanged and we are strongly condemning the recent move to give him an election ticket”.
Gul Bahar Bibi told DNA that Regar should “not be allowed to enter politics otherwise, he will spread the same hatred against Muslims which he has displayed earlier. People like him are menace to the society”. She questioned the move to offer Regar a ticket, saying, “‘Why is he being given a political ticket to contest elections? Isn’t there any humanity left? Why can’t the government do something to prevent him from contesting the polls”. She told DNA that while she was given monetary compensation by West Bengal Chief Minister Mamata Banerjee and South Malda’s Congress MP Abu Hasem Khan Choudhary following her husband’s death it “could not alleviate the grief of losing Afrazul. My three daughters and I have been living a life of uncertainty since then. We have no other source of income. What is going to happen after we exhaust the money?”
In December 2017, Regar allegedly burned and hacked to death Afrazul in Rajasthan’s Rajsamand, with a video of the incident going viral. Regar was arrested, and has been in Jodhpur jail.