Last year, Shambhulal Regar allegedly burned and hacked to death Mohammed Afrazul, 45, a Bengali migrant worker in Rajasthan’s Rajsamand, with a video of the incident going viral. Regar has been in jail since December 2017. Now, however, he may be contesting the upcoming Lok Sabha elections. The Uttar Pradesh Navnirman Sena “has offered Regar a ticket and has also claimed that he has accepted the offer,” News18 reported.
“The Uttar Pradesh Navnirman Sena has decided that for the Agra Lok Sabha seat, the party’s candidate will be Shambhulal Regar. He will contest the election from inside Jodhpur jail, where he is currently lodged,” Amit Jani, the outfit’s national president, told News18, adding, “I have been in touch with him for a long time now and I am pleased to say that he has agreed to be out candidate from Agra. We want only Hindutva faces to contest elections on our party’s tickets and there can be nobody better than him. We will soon make a formal announcement.”
The Agra seat has been reserved for those belonging to Scheduled Castes. The current MP is Ramshankar Katheria of the BJP, who also chairs the National Commission of Scheduled Castes (NCSC).
Jani “claimed that Regar’s life is in danger in Jodhpur jail,” ANI reported, adding that Jani said, “We will save Regar and will also give political assurance to him. According to Regar, he did this in self-defence and it’s up to the court whether he is a killer or not”. When questioned by News18 about associating with Regar, Jani said, “People like Atique Ahmed, Mukhtar Ansari and Raja Bhaiyya have far more serious cases against their names. If someone like Shahabuddin can contest elections, then so can Shambhulal Regar. He is innocent until proven guilty – a murder accused, not a murderer.” News18 noted that Jani himself has previously been arrested “for a 2016 Facebook post in which he threatened to murder former JNUSU president Kanhaiya Kumar”.
In a video message, Regar had said that he attacked Afrazul to “save a girl from love jihad,” Outlook India reported, adding that Regar was also heard saying, “Jihadists, leave our country or you will meet the same fate”. Per ANI, the police discovered that Regar “was obsessed with hate videos on his phone and was part of rabid groups.”