The Uttar Pradesh Deputy Chief Minister Keshav Prasad Maurya ended an interview abruptly when a BBC journalist asked him to comment on the calls for the genocide of Muslims at a “dharam sansad” in Haridwar in December 2021.

Maurya said no such calls were made at the event. When told there is video evidence, the BJP politician told the journalist to ask questions about elections. “You are not talking like a journalist, you are talking like an agent,” the deputy chief minister said, proceeding to take his microphone off and ending the interview.

According to BBC News Hindi, the video was recovered from a camera chip after Maurya forced them to delete it.