WEB DESK
The murder of two sadhus inside a temple at Uttar Pradesh’s Bulandshahr has snowballed into a major political controversy days after two sadhus were killed by a mob in Maharashtra.
Maharashtra chief minister Uddhav Thackeray dialed his Uttar Pradesh counterpart Yogi Adityanath over the killing of two sadhus and expressed concern over it. Thackeray called for strict punishment for the perpetrators of the “heinous” crime and said that the incident should not be given a communal colour.
“I spoke to Uttar Pradesh chief minister Yogi Adityanath ji over the phone and expressed concern over the heinous murder of two sadhus in UP’s Bulandshahr. I told him that we are with you. Just the way we acted strongly in such a case, I wish you would do the same and bring the accused to justice. However, I appeal to you that the incident should not be given a communal colour,” Thackeray said.
Adityanath had spoken to Thackeray after two sadhus were lynched in Maharashtra’s Palghar district earlier this month. The Maharashtra home department had subsequently booked over 100 people in connection with the case.
The sadhus, 52 and 35, were killed on Monday night, allegedly by a man they had berated and accused of theft. A man called Raju has been arrested and charged with murder, the police said.
“Raju said he had bhang (cannabis) and went into the temple and murdered the priests. We asked him about reports he attacked the sadhus with a sword but the accused claims he only used lathis,” Ravindra Kumar, a senior government official, said.
“The accused claimed it was the will of God,” Mr Kumar told reporters.
The Uttar Pradesh police have denied any communal angle in the murders. The accused man was still “high” and would be questioned when he was coherent, a police officer said.
“The two babas lived here at the temple. One person named Murai alias Raju, who belongs to a scheduled caste, took away a ”chimta” (tongs) for which he was scolded and abused by the priests. After the murder, villagers were looking for him and spotted him drugged with bhang,” a senior police officer, Santosh Kumar Singh, said.
Uttar Pradesh Chief Minister Yogi Adityanath has asked for a report on the killings.
He was among the BJP leaders who had demanded an inquiry after the mob-killing of two Sadhus in Maharashtra’s Palghar, which, a section suggested, was a communal attack.
Maharashtra’s Shiv Sena-NCP-Congress coalition had denounced what it called attempts to whip up tension in the middle of the coronavirus crisis. The Sadhus and their driver were attacked and killed by a mob on April 16 allegedly over rumours that they were involved in the kidnapping of children for organs. State Home Minister Anil Deshmukh said 101 people were arrested for the killings and not a single accused was Muslim.
Despite the Maharashtra government’s emphatic denial of any communal link, several BJP leaders raised questions. Home Minister Amit Shah called Chief Minister Uddhav Thackeray and asked him to take tough action.
Maharashtra Congress, on Tuesday, questioned BJP’s silence on the brutal murder of two priests in Bulandshahr, Uttar Pradesh.
Strongly condemning the killing, state Congress general secretary and spokesperson Sachin Sawant demanded stern action against the culprits. Expressing outrage over the incident, he said it was an indication of a complete collapse of law and order in the BJP-ruled state of Uttar Pradesh.
“In the case of lynching of three persons including two sadhus in Palghar, the Maharashtra government arrested 110 persons and a high-level inquiry has been ordered,” he said.
It came to light later that the incident took place due to rumours about thieves roaming in the area, but “still the opposition communalised the incident to malign the Maharashtra government,” Sawant said.
“The same BJP is now silent over the Bulandshahr incident. This shows the BJP’s double standard and attempts to play politics during the coronavirus crisis, which is condemnable,” he said.
Sawant put forth 10 questions to the BJP over the Bulandshahr incident.
- Union Home Minister Amit Shah had called Chief Minister Uddhav Thackeray immediately after the Palghar incident. When will he call the chief minister of Uttar Pradesh?
- None of the leaders, including BJP spokesperson Sambit Patra, tweeted a protest. Isn’t this murder condemnable?
- Is there any difference between the sadhus of Palghar and the sadhus of Bulandshahr?
- The sadhus of Bulandshahr had a quarrel with the killer earlier. Yet why were they not given protection?
- Why was no immediate action taken against the killer after a quarrel with the sadhus?
- Is this an intelligence failure of the Uttar Pradesh government?
- Sadhus are being killed with swords by plotting murder during lockdown, isn’t it a failure of Uttar Pradesh government?
- Is BJP going to demand CBI probe into this murder?
- After the Palghar incident, will the BJP leaders who demanded the resignation of the home minister of Maharashtra, now demand the resignation of the chief minister of Uttar Pradesh?
- Pro-Hindu organisations have called for a “sattvic agitation” after the killing of Palghar sadhus. Some BJP leaders are even giving up food for a while. Now, are these BJP leaders going to go on hunger strike for the second time to protest the killing of sadhus in Bulandshahr?