Mainpuri violence......2 women held for assault on cops

Mainpuri violence: Son arson accused, corporator mother, wife attack cops who went to arrest him

Nine persons, including president of BJP’s Mainpuri city unit Rakesh Chandel, were arrested Sunday for their alleged role behind the violence in Karhal area over rumours of cow slaughter on Friday. They were produced in court and then sent to jail.

A case has also been lodged against Prashant Yadav, brother of Nagar Panchayat chairman Sanjeev Kumar Yadav. However, he is yet to be nabbed. As many as 29 persons have been arrested so far in connection with the violence.

BJP state president Laxmi Kant Bajpai said the party would protest against Chandel’s arrest and claimed the violence was triggered by public anger at “police failure to nab cow slaughterers”.

Claiming that the carcass was of a slaughtered cow, he said the administration and police were falsely claiming that the animal died of some disease.

Sanjeev claimed Prashant was at the district SP office at the time of violence. He added that SP workers who have differences with him were trying to frame his brother.

Friday’s violence was triggered when Muslim men Lalla and Shafeeq were seen “skinning a cow carcass” in Karhal. They were thrashed before police rescued them. Later, police said postmortem had confirmed that the cow died of some disease.

However, Shafeeq and Lalla were booked on charges of promoting enmity between different groups on grounds of religion and making statement creating or promoting enmity, hatred between classes. In another case, police named 31 persons and booked 250-300 unidentified persons under charges of arson, rioting, attempt to murder and attack on police force.

Families of Shafeeq and Lalla said police were not lodging an FIR in connection with the assault on the two men. They also said Prashant was the key person behind the violence.

Shafeeq’s son Jaleel said he had seen Prashant leading the mob. “He arranged for a kerosene container to set my father on fire. Police reached and rescued him,” said Jaleel.He added that despite being an eyewitness, police did not record his statement.

2 women held for assault on cops

n The police on Sunday arrested local SP leader and Municipal Board corporator Malti Yadav and her daughter-in-law Arti for attacking the policemen who had gone to arrest Malti’s son, an accused in the arson case. The two were released on personal bond later in the evening, police said.