A person named in a first information report on the violence that broke out in Uttar Pradesh’s Bulandshahr district on Monday has acchsed police inspector Subodh Kumar Singh, who was found dead under mysterious circumstances, of threatening to kill him and his companions, PTI reported.
A video featuring local Bharatiya Janata Party leader Shikhar Agarwal was released on Thursday, a day after Bajrang Dal leader Yogesh Raj – the prime accused in the violence case – claimed he was not at the spot at the time of the incident.
Both Raj and Agarwal are among the 27 people identified in a First Information Report filed on Monday following mob violence in which Singh and a 20-year-old man identified as Sumit Kumar Singh died. The villagers from Mahaw were protesting after discovering what they claimed were cow carcasses.
Raj filed an FIR less than an hour before the violence, claiming he and a group of people – including Shikhar Kumar – had discovered the carcasses. On the basis of the complaint, the police booked seven Muslims. However, on Wednesday the Bajrang Dal leader contradicted his statement and said he had gone to the spot after receiving information about the carcasses.
In his video, Shikhar Agarwal claimed that Subodh Kumar Singh had stopped him and his companions when they were taking the carcasses to the police station to file a complaint. Singh refused to let the group proceed and wanted the carcasses disposed of, Agarwal alleged. He added that the inspector – who he alleged was corrupt – created a tense environment just to stop the cow slaughter case from being filed. Agarwal accused Singh of “siding with the Muslim community” on the matter.
Agarwal is the youth wing president of the Siyana unit of the Bharatiya Janata Party, according to PTI. Four people have been arrested in the violence case and four have been arrested for the alleged cow slaughter. Bajrang Dal on Wednesday reportedly asked Raj to surrender but he and Agarwal continue to remain absconding.
Inspector used to get threatening calls, claims wife
Singh’s wife Rajni on Thursday claimed that her husband used to get threatening phone calls, the Hindustan Times reported. “My husband used to receive threats,” she said. “He used to record the calls. This record has all gone with the mobile missing after his killing.”
“Understandably, the mobile must have been taken away by the person who knew that his threats were being recorded in the mobile,” Rajni said. “My husband used to download threats on a laptop from the mobile but could not do so for past one month.”
She added that the inspector may have informed his seniors about the threats.
Rajni and her two sons met Chief Minister Adityanath in Lucknow on Thursday. She said she was confident of a fair probe into the incident after having met the chief minister.
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