Photo Credit: Saurabh Trivedi
 
Noida: The group of men accused of beating Mohammad Akhlaq to death in Uttar Pradesh’s Dadri were reportedly seen cheering Chief Minister Yogi Adityanath during a rally on Sunday. 
 
NDTV reported that Vishal Rana, the main accused, and three others were seen who are out on bail, were cheering on during the rally held in Greater Noida’s Bisada village. 
 
Akhlaq was brutally and mercilessly beaten and murdered in front of his family on suspicions having killed a cow. His son Danish was also brutally beaten but survived the attack. 
 
It didn’t stop Uttar Pradesh Chief Minister Yogi Adityanath from invoking the incident at the rally.
 
“Who doesn’t remember what happened in Bisada? The way the Samajwadi Party government tried to curb our emotions here,” said Adityanath, while campaigning for the BJP’s Gautam Buddha Nagar candidate, Mahesh Sharma.
 
“Vishal Singh, one of the prime accused in the case, who was seen sitting in the front with other accused in the case, said they had been falsely implicated in the case. He also said “nothing will happen now,” since they are out on bail, he smiled,” The Hindu reported.
 
“In the chargesheet filed by the police, Vishal Singh was accused of making an announcement from a local temple that Akhlaq had consumed beef and was storing it in his house. All 17 accused in the case are out on bail,” the report said.
 
“People in Western U.P. are living a peaceful life under BJP rule because impossible is now possible because of Modi,” Adityanath said in the rally.
 
In the rally, the CM also accused the previous governments of “harassing” the majority community by lodging “false” cases against them and thus creating a “breeding ground” for riots. “During my two years, has there has been any Bisada-like incident? Has there been any safety concern to sisters and mothers? No. This cannot happen because we have said that we will guarantee safety and development to 23 crore citizens of the state, bring everyone into the mainstream. We won’t differentiate between people but won’t engage in appeasement politics,” he said.
 
Granted bail by the Allahabad High Court in 2017, like all the other accused, Vishal told The Indian Express, “Yes I was there at the rally with the others. We all support the BJP.”

 
While all the accused are back home at Bisada, Akhlaq’s family had left the village shortly after the incident.
 
With charges yet to be framed and all the 19 accused on bail, Akhlaq’s family questioned the functioning of the fast-track court. “It’s been so many years, we have had dates after dates. We keep doing our duty by visiting the Greater Noida court, but we are still awaiting trial. The fast-track court was set up for a purpose and it remains unfulfilled. The accused are roaming free with zero consequences,” Akhlaq’s brother Jan Mohammad said in a report by The India Express.
 
Manju Verma, former Bihar minister who is out on bail in the Muzaffarpur shelter homes case, was also seen seated on stage behind BJP’s minister Giriraj Singh during a speech. This was in Begusarai. Verma was arrested under the Indian Arms Act. Just last week, charges were framed in court against 21 of the accused in this case, The Wire reported.
 

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Tejpal Nagar, BJP MLA from Dadri, has promised jobs to all the alleged killers of Mohammad Akhlaq in National Thermal Power Corporation Dadri on contract basis. Over 15 accused youths in the Akhlaq murder case were released by Allahabad High Court last month.

Admitting this an NTPC representative told the media,”Yes, we have agreed to give jobs to residents of Bishahra. It has nothing to do with Akhlaq’s lynching. It is NTPC’s policy to give jobs to all the project affected persons ( PAF) based on their qualification and expertise,” an NTPC has said to the media.
 
Incidentally, Nagar who has been a committed supporter of all the accused residents of Bishahra who lynched Akhlaq, their neighbour, over rumours of beef, took the initiative last week and talked to the NTPC management to provide jobs to the youths on contract basis. Some of them used to work in NTPC on contractual basis but lost their jobs after they were arrested and jailed for about two years on charges of killing Akhlaq on September 28, 2015.

How did this begin ? The occasion for his meeting with NTPC officials arose when Neeraj, a resident of Bishahra and also brother of one of the accused in the Akhlaq’s lynching case, immolated himself at the NTPC gate, a month after he was thrown out of contractual job in NTPC. Neeraj who used to work in NTPC on contract basis, succumbed to injuries last week after which resident of Bishahra organised series of protest to get a job to Neeraj’s family members. The BJP MLA intervened and met the NTPC officials to get “justice” for Neeraj.

“I met the senior management of NTPC last week. A written agreement has been made between NTPC officials and elders of Bishahra village that a job will be provided to Neeraj’s wife in the school which is in the premise of NTPC. Both the parties also agreed to provide jobs to all the youths who were arrested in Akhlaq’s lynching case in the next three months,” Nagar told the media.

Asked if the murder accused should be given jobs by NTPC, Nagar said, “Look, they are innocent youths who were framed by the Samajwadi Party government. Akhlaq did not die in the village. He died much later in hospital. The villagers did not mean to kill him. They turned emotional after seeing beef and as the witness in cow slaughter case has also said, Akhlaq accepted of the cow slaughter”

“The case might take years to be deposed. Does it mean that these youths should starve? If the honourable High Court of Allahabad granted them bail then they also have the right to work and feed themselves,”, said Nagar who is the new MLA from Dadri. He clarified that it was not a government job but temporary work being provided on contract basis.

The news of jobs on the intervention of the BJP MLA, however, did not surprise Jan Mohammad, the brother of Akhlaq. Mohammad has been made the main accused in the cow slaughter case which was filed by the Bishahra villagers against Akhlaq, his son Danish, daughter Shaista mother Asghari Begum, wife Ikraman and his brother Jan Mohammad.

His son, Sartaj and lawyer have been waging a staunch battle for justice.

Nagar is not the first BJP leader and not the first party MLA who has come in defence of Akhlaq’s alleged killers. Many senior BJP leaders in the past had been, at best soft on the killers of Akhlaq and at worst, they ended up being their advocates. Prominent reason for this is that key accused in this case, Vishal Rana is the son of the local BJP leader Sanjay Rana. Nine of the other 14 accused in the case are also related to Sanjay Rana. Several senior BJP leaders of western Uttar Pradesh repeatedly defended the accused youths saying that they did not mean to kill Akhlaq and it was just that they got “excited”. Few days after Akhlaq’s lynching, Sangeet Som, the BJP MLA from Sardhana constituency and an accused in the 2013 Muzaffarnaar riots, came in support of the killers of Akhlaq. He visited Bishahra and publicly announced that the accused youth were innocent and he would arrange legal fee for them. He had also termed Akhlaq’s family as “cow slaughterers”.

When one of the lynching accused Ravin Sisodia died of Chikangunya, the villagers termed him a martyr and draped the casket of his dead body into the national flag, an outright violation of law. At that time the local Member of Parliament and then Union Culture Minister Mahesh Sharma went to the village and paid homage to the dead body of Sisodia, thereby, legitimising the right-wing narrative of Akhlaq’s alleged killers as “Hindu brave-hearts and martyrs”.

Other reason of the support of BJP leader for the alleged killers of Akhlaq is that Bishahra is a Thakur dominated village and the dominant community is a known vote bank of the saffron party.
 
In the 2012 Assembly elections Dadri had voted for Bahujan Samaj Party MLA. BSP has traditionally been strong force in Dadri also because of Mayawati’s ancestral village, Badalpur falling in the constituency.
 
But this time around Akhlaq’s lynching in 2015 and the communal mobilisation around the issue openly by right wing groups in favour of the BJP, helped the saffron party win the seat. Nagar, the BJP candidate, got the maximum number of Bishahra’s votes because he had assured that once BJP will come to power, it will deliver “justice” to the youths. That is why months after winning the seat and after formation of the BJP government, he had publicly declared all the accused in Akhlaq’s murder case to be innocents. He had also requested the chief minister Yogi Adityanath to help in their release.
 
 

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One of the accused in the lynching of Mohammed Akhlaq, Punit was released late last evening and media reports suggest that some villagers celebrated his release as he reached his village. Punit and another accused in the gruesome lynching of Akhlaq, Arun were granted bail by the High Court on April 6. Both were lodged in a jail in Greater Noida. Arun’s bail documents are expected to reach the district in next two days and till then he will remain in jail.

The two are accused in the murder of Mohammed Akhlaq in Bisada village in Dadri tehsil of Gautam Buddh Nagar district in September, 2015. Akhlaq was beaten to death by a mob on suspicion of cow slaughter after they barged into his house. His son Danish was critically injured in the attack. There was no proof that the meat found in the possession of the mob was beef at all. At the time a case was registered against more than a dozen persons, including the son of a local BJP leader, in connection with the attack. There were at the time only two Muslim families in the neighbourhood where Akhlaque's family stays. Akhlaque's family has almost decided to leave the village and shift out to the airbase in Chennai where his younger son Sartaj works as a technician. In other parts of the village, about 52 Muslim houses exist.

Central BJP leaders including Ministers have been, in brazen acts of defiance of the rule of law, been ‘paying homage’ to the accused since the crime took place. The Hindu reported on October 4, 2015, days after the killing by a lynch mob of Mohammed Akhlaq that Sangeet Som, then BJP MLA, visited the village Bisada amid rising communal tension and vowed to “ try to get bail for Dadri accused” . Som was himself accused in the brutal communal violence that swept four districts of western Uttar Pradesh including Muzaffarnagar, Baghpat, Shamli and Meerut in September 2013, eight months prior to the general election that swept the Modi government to power in May 2014. Som visited the village soon after the killing and made this controversial statement justifying the murder, addressing an excited mob and deliberately politicising the issue by addressing the mob from a local temple.

Without specifically referring to the Muzaffarnagar riots, Som an elected representative had taken law unto his own hands and warned, “ kanoon kanoon ki tarah kaam kare. Warna, ham pahle bhi muhtod jawab de chuke hai aur aage bhi denge [the law should act as law. Otherwise, we have given a strong reply in the past and would do that in future as well]” In keeping with his majoritarian, Hindutva image in western UP, Sangeet Som refused to condemn the mob lynching of Akhlaq. When the media had asked Mr. Som if he would go on to condemn the murder, he smiled and said,” Let the enquiry report come as to what happened that day”. Strangely the UP state administration under Akhilesh Yadav had banned the media from covering Som’s visit while allowing him to conduct himself with impunity.

Som had also met the families of accused arrested for inciting and killing Akhlaq. He assured the families and the crowd that he would try to get them out on bail. One of the nine accused, Vishal is son of Sanjay Rana, a senior and old time BJP worker from the area. Sanjay Rana alleged that his son was being framed in the entire episode and the actual conspirators were not being arrested.
 
Then again, last year, the Times of India reported how, on October 6, Tourism minister Mahesh Sharma in the Modi government visited the family of deceased Ravin Sisodia, also one of the accused in Dadri lynching case. Shockingly, the minister tweeted the pictures of his visit to Ravin's grieving family in Bisada village of Uttar Pradesh. The 22-year-old was one of the 18 accused for the murder of Mohammad Akhlaq last year over suspicion that he had eaten and stored beef.

"Met the family of deceased Ravin in Bisara village, Greater Noida. Bisara get settled now," Mr Sharma tweeted after his visit.The photo of Sharma folding his hands and paying obeisance to the dead body of Ravi, who had died in police custody of chikungunya, had gone viral on social media platforms. Sharma, who is the local MP, also handed over a cheque of Rs 5 lakh to the family of Ravi Sisodia, a key accused in the murder of Mohammad Akhlaq in September 2015.

Worse was the act of the body of the dead accused being draped in a tricolour, with the policemen and administration officials remaining mute spectators. Counter criminal cases were demanded by the mob, to be registered against both the brother of the murdered Akhlaq and the jailer. A pathetic level of competitiveness in demanding Rs 1 crore compensation for the dead accused was indulged in by the mob with the Central Minister Mahesh Sharma present. Shaken by the majoriatrian mobilisation, the Akhilesh Yadav government, instead of dealing with the issue through dialogue, succumbed to mob pressure and even announced Rs 10 10 lakh compensation to the deceased Ravi’s wife Pooja. Uttar Pradesh Police claimed that Ravi was suffering from high fever and his death was suspected to be due to dengue.

Sangeet Som and Suresh Rana Win Again Due to Vote Division
Clearly the communal polarisation helped both BJP candidates Sangeet Som and Suresh Rana, who are accused of crimes in the Muzaffarnagar violence win. Som won from Sardhana and Suresh Rana from Thana Bhawan seats respectively.Sangeet Som secured 97,921 votes while his nearest rival SP’s Atul Pradhan got 76,296 votes in Sardhana (Meerut). In Thana Bhawan (Shamli), Suresh Rana got 90,995 votes while BSP’s Abdul Waris Khan secured 74,178 votes.
 

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Image: Indian Express

दादरी के क्षेत्राधिकारी अनुराग सिंह ने कहा, ‘‘मैं तबादले में था और आज मैंने आगरा में ज्वॉइन किया है। मैंने मीडिया को बताया था कि अभी तक अखलाक के भाई द्वारा गोकशी का कोई प्रामाणिक सबूत नहीं है, इसलिए हम अभी उन्हें गिरफ्तार नहीं कर सकते। क्लोजर रिपोर्ट दाखिल करने के संबंध में मैंने केवल इतना कहा था कि अगर हमें कोई सबूत नहीं मिलता तो यह अंतिम कदम उठाना होगा।’

भाषा की खबर के अनुसार,उन्होंने कहा, ‘‘अंतिम क्षण तक जांच जारी रहेगी और जब हमें कोई सबूत मिलेगा तो हम आरोपियों को गिरफ्तार करेंगे। इस मामले में जांच चल रही है और हमने क्लोजर रिपोर्ट की कोई योजना नहीं बनाई है। अब एक नये अधिकारी मामले में फैसला करेंगे।’

पुलिस द्वारा क्लोजर रिपोर्ट जमा करने की योजना की खबरों से बिसाहड़ा गांव में तनाव पसर गया था जहां अखलाक को इसलिए भीड़ ने मार दिया था क्योंकि उसके परिवार द्वारा गोमांस खाने की अफवाह उड़ गयी थी। एक आरोपी के पिता और भाजपा नेता संजय राणा ने आरोप लगाया था कि पुलिस मामले को बंद करने की जल्दबाजी में है।

Courtesy: Janta ka Reporter

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दादरी कांड में मृतक अखलाक का पक्ष देख रहे वरिष्ठ मानवाधिकार कार्यकर्ता व अधिवक्ता असद हयात ने कहा कि इस पूरे मामले में दोषी सचिन ने जिस तरह से न्यायालय में अपने नाबालिग होने का फर्जी सबूत पेशकर 6 सितंबर को जमानत पर रिहाई पाई उसके साफ होता है कि इस पूरे मामले में विवेचना अधिकारी दोषियों के पक्ष में है। उन्होंने बताया के मुकदमा अपराध संख्या 241/15 के अन्तर्गत धारा 323, 147, 148, 149, 504, 506, 307, 427 458 आईपीसी व 7 आपराधिक कानूनों संशोंधन अधिनियम थाना जारचा जिला गौतमबुद्ध नगर के अभियुक्त सचिन पुत्र ओम प्रकाश द्वारा धोखा धड़ी व तथ्यों को छिपाकर स्वंय को नाबालिग घोषित कराए जाने के विरोध में जांच कराने के लिए आज अखलाक की पुत्री शाइस्ता ने प्रार्थना पत्र वरिष्ठ पुलिस अधीक्षक गौतम बु़द्ध नगर को भेजा है।

गौतम बुद्ध नगर के वरिष्ठ पुलिस अधीक्षक व थाना जारचा के प्रभारी को दिए प्रार्थना पत्र अखलाक की पुत्री शाइस्ता ने कहा है कि वह और अभियुक्त सचिन 2009 में राणा संग्राम सिंह इंटर काॅलेज में सहपाठी थे। सचिन ने हाई स्कूल की परीक्षा दी थी पर वह अनुत्तीर्ण रहा। इसके बाद अभियुक्त सचिन 2013 में दयानंद इंटर काॅलेज बंबावड़ गौतमबुद्ध नगर से हाई स्कूल उत्तीर्ण किया। विद्यालय के अभिलेख में उसकी जन्म तिथि 6 सितंबर 1994 अंकित है। चूंकि अभियुक्त सचिन सन 2009 की हाई स्कूल की परीक्षा में असफल था इसलिए उसने आयु को चार वर्ष घटा दिया और संस्थागत छात्र के बतौर उसने दयानंद इंटर काॅलेज में परीक्षा का फार्म भरा तो अपनी जन्म तिथि 6 सितंबर 1998 कर दी हालांकि इस गलती को काॅलेज प्रशासन नहीं पकड़ा और यूपी बोर्ड परीक्षा को अग्रसरित कर दिया। जबकि जन्म तिथि जो परीक्षा फार्म में उल्लेखित है वह विद्यालय के छात्र पंजीकरण अभिलेखों के अनुरुप नहीं है।

विवेचना अधिकारी पर आरोप लगाते हुए शाइस्ता ने कहा है कि विवेचना अधिकारी ने गहन रुप से विवेचना नहीं की। विवेचना अधिकारी को इस तथ्य की खोज करनी चाहिए थी कि दयानंद इंटर काॅलेज बंबावड़ में सचिन का छात्र पंजीकरण जिसका नंबर 11625 है किस वर्ष में हुआ और सचिन ने पूर्व विद्यालय और शिक्षा के संबन्ध में अपने प्रमाण पत्र ट्रांसफर सर्टिफिकेट किस विद्यालय के प्रस्तुत किए हैं।

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