Lucknow/New Delhi: Uttar Pradesh chief minister Yogi Adityanath on Thursday met Prime Minister Narendra Modi in Delhi in the backdrop of Bulandshahr violence earlier this week in which a police inspector and a 20-year-old villager were killed in clashes over alleged cow slaughter. The meeting came hours after the chief minister met the family of slain inspector Subodh Kumar Singh at hais official Lucknow residence to offer help and assure strict action against the culprits.
Though details of the meeting between Mr Modi and Mr Adityanath were not available, sources said that the two leaders discussed the Bulandshahr incident.
An official, however, said that the chief minister had gone to invite Mr Modi for various events in the state, including one in Gorakhpur where President Ram Nath Kovind is expected be present on December 9 and 10.
Earlier, Mr Adityanath faced Opposition parties’ ire for delaying his meeting with the inspector’s family. A gap of three days between the incident and the chief minister’s meeting with the slain cop’s family had invited criticism on the ground that Mr Adityanath had been paying more attention to cow protection than helping the victims’ families. The chief minister had also drawn flak for attending a laser show in Gorakhpur when violence broke out in Bulandshahr.
The saffron-clad chief minister, who was busy campaigning for the BJP in election-bound Rajasthan since the mob violence on December 3, met the slain inspector’s wife Rajni and two sons, Shrey and Abhishek, at his Kalidas Marg residence in Lucknow.
During the meeting, the inspector’s wife told Mr Adityanath that while handling complaints against cow slaughter her husband used to get threats on phone.
“My husband was a straightforward man and never used to succumb to pressure. He used to receive threats. He used to record the calls. This record has all gone with his mobile missing since his killing,” said Ms Rajni.
Inspector Singh was also the investigating officer (IO) in the 2015 Akhlaq lynching case in Dadri.
Mr Adityanath consoled the slain inspector’s death and assured his family members that the accused would not be spared. Besides announcing a relief of '50 lakh to the inspector’s family, Mr Adityanath said that the state government would also pay back the outstanding educational loan of about '30 lakh which the family owes to a bank.
Uttar Pradesh director general of police O.P. Singh, who was also present at the meeting, told reporters, “The chief minister has given assurance to the victim’s family
that they will remain like a family and there would not be any disturbance in the children’s studies.”
The government also announced that a road leading to the inspector’s village in Etah and a college will be named after him.
In a related development, controversial BJP MLA Sangeet Som supported the announcement to pay '10 lakh compensation to the kin of villager Sumit Kumar, 20, who was killed in violence along with the inspector.
If the family of Mohammad Akhlaq, who was lynched by a mob in 2015, can get state compensation, what is wrong with the family of Sumit Kumar getting aid, Mr Som said.
The announcement to pay compensation to Sumit’s family raised a storm after some reports alleged that he was among the protesting villagers who attacked the police on Monday. Other reports suggested that he was a bystander at the spot of violence and fell to a bullet fired during the clashes.
Meanwhile, a day after a Bajrang Dal activist appeared in a video claiming innocence in the Bulandshahr mob violence, another man wanted by the police surfaced in a similar manner.
In the video, local BJP leader Shikhar Agarwal, who is also named in the FIR, is heard blaming slain police inspector Subodh Kumar Singh for the violence which erupted around a police post over alleged cow slaughter.
On Monday, a mob of some 400 people, including right-wing activists, violently rampaged through the Chingrawathi village apparently after cow carcasses were found strewn in the jungle nearby. The police has arrested four people in connection with the violence.
