The Rajasthan government on Saturday gave Rs 5 lakh to the family of a Muslim labourer who had been hacked to death. A video of the brutal murder had gone viral on Wednesday, after which Opposition leaders and rights groups had accused the state of shielding those attacking Muslims.
On Saturday, Director General of Police Om Prakash Galhotra visited the place that Afrazul was killed at, in Rajsamand district. Afrazul was a labourer from Malda district in West Bengal.
Galhotra said that Chief Minister Vasundhara Raje was “serious about the matter”, and called the murder gruesome, The Indian Express reported. “ She [Raje] has instructed that the strictest action be taken against the accused,” he said. “All efforts are on to ensure timely delivery of justice.” On Friday, several rights groups on Thursday demanded that Raje and Home Minister Gulab Chand Kataria resign for allegedly giving impunity to those accused of attacking Muslims.
A man identified as Shambhulal Regar was arrested for the murder. Regar had shared multiple videos of the brutal killing. The Rajasthan Police also detained his nephew. Inspector General of Police (Udaipur) Anand Shrivastava said that Regar’s nephew, a minor, had shot the videos of the murder.
Not a ‘love jihad’ case, says minister
Union minister Mukhtar Abbas Naqvi on Saturday denied reports of the murder being linked to a case of “love jihad”. “Love jihad” is a term given to cases where Muslim men allegedly woo Hindu women on the pretext of trying to marry them and convert them. Naqvi said the murder was a criminal case and should not be mixed with religion, the Hindustan Times reported.
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