In a bizarre development in the BJPruled Uttar Pradesh, the authorities have invoked the dreaded National Security Act against three Muslim accused in the alleged cow slaughtering case. This, according to Bulandshahr District Magistrate Anuj Jha, was to prevent the three Muslim accused from obtaining the bail.
Confirming the news of NSA being invoked against Azhar, Mehboob and Nadeem, Jha said, “We had made arrests in the alleged cow slaughtering incident of 2/3 December and taken necessary actions. But, now three accused had submitted their bail applications and had a good possibility of having the bail granted. Keeping that in mind, the NSA has been slapped against them.”
The violent incident on 3 December in Bulandshahr had seen the gruesome murder of one police officer Subodh Kumar Singh allegedly by the Hindutva terrorists. Police have arrested several high-profile members of Vishwa Hindu Parishad, Bajrang Dal and youth wing of the BJP in connection of Singh’s murder. Notable among those arrested for murder are Yogesh Raj, Shikhar Agarwal, Kalua and a servind army soldier Jitendra Malik aka Jitu Fauji.
Several opposition parties and civil rights activists have accused Chief Minister Yogi Adityanath of scuttling the probe in the murder of Singh while giving special attention to dead cattle. As many as 80 retired bureaucrats had recently written a letter demanding Adityanath’s resignation.
A poster of Bajrang Dal and Vishwa Hindu Parishad wishing people on the occasion of Hindu festival Makar Sakranti and India’s Republic Day had hailed some of the accused in Singh’s murder case as heroes.
Hindutva terrorists had killed Singh, last month while staging protests over the rumoured incident of cow slaughtering in the area. In a damning indictment of the BJP government in Uttar Pradesh, a senior minister from Yogi Adityanath’s cabinet had blamed Hindutva outfits such as Bajrang Dal, Vishwa Hindu Parishad and the RSS for the Bulandshahr violence. Minister Om Prakash Rajbhar said that Monday’s violence was a blatant attempt to disturb peace on the same as lakhs of Muslims gathered in Bulandshahr as part of their annual Ijtima or congregation.
Uttar Pradesh is being government by the BJP with Yogi Adityanath as the state’s chief minister. Analysts say that Hindutva militants have become emboldened ever since Adityanath was sworn in as the Uttar Pradesh Chief Minister. Before becoming the chief minister, Adityanath had founded a dreaded armed militant group Hindu Yuva Vahini, distribute arms among Hinduswhich had famously promised to immediately after Mohammed Akhlaq was lynched to death in Dadri in 2015.