Agra cow slaughter incident planned to incite Hindu-Muslim riots in U.P., says SP

“Sanjay Jat and friends slaughtered a cow on March 29.”

A day after the Uttar Pradesh police said that some members of the All India Hindu Mahasabha slaughtered a cow in Agra to allegedly frame four Muslim men for the crime under Etmaddulah police station area last month, the Samajwadi Party (SP) targeted the ruling Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) for creating a hostile environment against the Muslim community in the State and helping the fringe Hindu fundamentalist elements to target innocent people.

“The real face of the BJP and its related organisations has come in front of everyone, continuously a hostile environment against Muslims is being created in the State with the help of the fundamentalist groups like the Hindu Mahasabha,” Swami Prasad Maurya, the party’s general secretary, told The Hindu.

Such incidents were aimed at inciting riots in Uttar Pradesh, he claimed.

BJP leaders declined to comment over the issue, stating that they have no information about the merits of the case.

Earlier, Agra police arrested two persons and named a few members of the All India Hindu Mahasabha, and a few Muslim men as accused of slaughtering a cow and implicating four Muslim men with whom they had an enmity. The U.P. police identified Sanjay Jat, the national spokesman for the All India Handu Mahasabha, as the primary suspect who conspired to implicate the Muslim men.

“Sanjay Jat and friends slaughtered a cow on March 29 and asked Hindu Mahasabha leader Jitendra Kushwaha to complain against Mohammad Nakim, Mohammad Rizwan and Mohammad Shanu. In the investigation and technical surveillance, it was concluded that the named accused were not involved. Later in the enquiry, it come to light that Sanjay had an enmity with these people and wanted to implicate them in the case with help of few people,” R.K. Singh, Agra Assistant Commissioner of Police, told media persons.