How Hindu Mahasabha members killed cows on Ram Navami and put blame on Muslims

Uttar Pradesh Police have revealed that some of the senior members of the All India Hindu Mahasabha slaughtered cows themselves to incite communal violence in Agra during the Ram Navami procession. Regional police said that the names of several office-bearers of the Bharat Hindu Mahasabha have also surfaced in the cow slaughter plot. 

Four men of the Hindu Mahasabha have been arrested after they slaughtered cows in Agra in an apparent bid to implicate Muslim men against whom they had a grudge.

Uttar Pradesh has a stringent anti-cow slaughter law, providing a maximum rigorous imprisonment of 10 years and a fine up to Rs 5 lakh for the offence.

The cow slaughter allegedly took place at Gautam Nagar which is within the jurisdiction of the Itimad ud Daulah police station area of Agra, on the eve of Ram Navami, March 29.

Members of the All India Hindu Mahasabha reached the area on the day, claiming that beef had been recovered from the caves. A police complaint was filed by one Jitendra Kushwaha.

Locals Mohammad Rizwan, Mohammad Nakim and Mohammad Shanu were named in the FIR.

Hindutva activists gheraoed the police station to demand the arrest of the accused. Two of the men – Imran Qureshi, a fourth suspect, and Shanu – were arrested the next day.

However, police said that during interrogation it was revealed that the arrested had had nothing to do with the slaughter of cows and that the national spokesperson of Akhil Bharat Hindu Mahasabha, Sanjay Jat, was the main conspirator.

Police said that Shanu, Imran and others were in a dispute with Nakeem, Bijjo and Rizwan. The last three are brothers. Nakeem is a Municipal Corporation employee and had earlier allegedly conspired to send some of them to jail.

Holding a grudge against Nakeem, Shanu and Imran had allegedly conspired to ensnare him in a cow slaughter case. They allegedly collaborated with the original complainant Khushwaha, along with several others and the Mahasabha spokesperson Jat who pointed fingers at Nakeem and the others.

“Jitendra was found to have lied to us during the interrogation. He, Sanjay and a few others were near the spot of the cow slaughter, call records suggest, not those they named in the police complaint. Call records also show that the accused persons had not gone to that spot in over a month,” a police officer said.