Police in Uttar Pradesh have arrested BJP youth wing leader Shikhar Agarwal in the murder of Bulandshahr cop Subodh Kumar Singh last year. Agarwal, who was on the run since then, was arrested from Hapur in Uttar Pradesh on Wednesday night.
While in hiding, Agarwal had released a video if himself, blaming the murdered cop and also given an interview to a news channel. He was one of the main accused named in the FIR for inciting the mob violence. His arrest follows the arrest of Yogesh Raj, the Bajrang Dal member, who was arrested earlier by the UP Police.
Hindutva terrorists had killed a police officer, Subodh Kumar 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.
Earlier this month, police had arrested one Kalua, who had allegedly attacked the cop with axe. Another man Yogesh Raj, a member of the Hindutva militant organisation Bajrang Dal, too has been arrested in the case.Police later said that Yogesh Raj had not denied his role in the stone-pelting outside Chingrawati police booth in Syana area of Bulandshahr, which was later torched.