A group of men accused of lynching Mohammad Akhlaq in 2015 in Uttar Pradesh’s Dadri were photographed cheering from the front row in an election campaign addressed by the state’s chief minister Yogi Adityanath.
The alleged killers are out on bail, and four of them including the main accused Vishal Rana, were photographed cheering from the front row of the election rally in Bisada village, where the killing took place, it was reported by NDTV. Yogi Adityanath was campaigning for the BJP candidate in the area, Mahesh Sharma.
Mohammad Akhlaq had been dragged out of home and lynched by a mob in 2015 on the basis of suspicion that he had killed a cow and kept the meat in the refrigerator. His son too was beaten up and sustained severe injuries. His family eventually left the village because of the tense situation.
At the rally, Yogi Adityanath blamed the Samajwadi party (SP) and the Bahujan Samaj Party (BSP) for dividing people “on the basis of caste” and “appeasement politics”. He even brought up the incident saying, “Who doesn’t remember what happened in Bisara? Everybody knows it. How shamefully the Samajwadi Party government tried to suppress the sentiments then. I can say as soon as our government was formed we got all illegal slaughter houses stopped in one go and ensured its strict implementation,” the NDTV report quoted.
The UP chief minister even alleged that riots would break out in previous regimes in western UP and “one-sided action” was taken to “insult the majority community”. He said false cases were filed against Hindus, which created a “breeding ground” for riots. He added that in the last two years since he came to power, there had been no Bisada-like incident in the state.
[Cover image: Deccan Chronicle]
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