Image courtesy: The Wire
The Agra police on Wednesday, April 12, arrested four members of All India Hindu Mahasabha, including its spokesperson Sanjay Singh, for getting an FIR registered against four Muslim men on false cow slaughtering charges on the eve of Ram Navami on March 30.
Only last week, the police arrested Imran Qureshi alias Thakur and Shanu alias Illi, both Muslims, who were also allegedly involved in framing the four Muslim men. “The four persons – Sanjay Singh alias Sanjay Jat, Jitendra Kushwaha, Brijesh Bhadouria and Saurabh Sharma – have been arrested on the basis of evidence we have collected against them,” Agra Assistant Commissioner of Police RK Singh said.
Following these four arrests, police are now looking for the remaining three accused, all Muslims. According to investigations so far, it was the five accused Muslim men had enmity with the four named in the false cow slaughter FIR.
On March 29, the eve of Ram Navami (March 30), Jitendra Kumar, a Hindu Mahasabha leader, filed a complaint alleging he had received information that Rizwan, alias Kalta that three others, including Nakeem, an Agra Municipal Corporation employee, and his brothers Vijju, alias Chottu and Shanu were slaughtering a cow in a thicket near Gautam Nagar and were planning to sell the meat. Kumar told the police that he rushed to the spot with his friends, but by then the accused had fled.
It was on the basis of this Kumar’s false complaint, an FIR was lodged against Rizwan and three others at the Etmaddulah police station under the UP Prevention of Cow Slaughter Act. At the spot, the police allegedly found cow meat, however, according to police, they found that the four men named in the FIR were not present at the spot. The final conclusion that the complaint was false was arrived at n on the basis of human intelligence, surveillance, CCTV footage and other evidence added the police.
On April 6, police arrested Qureshi and Illi, both residents of Agra for questioning. During the process, Qureshi and Illi, say the police, admitted to the conspiracy of framing the four Muslim men as Nakeem had complained to the police about them in the past, following which they were arrested.
Meanwhile, predictably, the All India Hindu Mahasabha state unit president Rishi Trivedi has said their leaders were being falsely implicated. “They (Mahasabha leaders) had informed police about cow slaughtering and reached the spot before police. Now, police have booked them in the case. It appears to be part of a conspiracy. Sanjay and others booked in the case were reaching the state capital, Lucknow, on Thursday to hold a press conference on this issue, but the police arrested them today,” said Trivedi stated The Indian Express.
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