Wheels of justice moving at slow pace in Rajsamand hate killing case

A gruesome hate killing has come to the limelight again after five years following a similar murder of tailor Kanhaiya Lal

The wheels of justice are moving sluggishly in the case of the “hate killing” of the 48-year-old Muslim labourer from West Bengal, who was hacked with an axe and burnt alive without any provocation in Rajasthan’s Rajsamand town in 2017. Mohammed Afrazul was hacked with an axe and burnt alive without any provocation in Rajasthan’s Rajsamand town in 2017. The accused, Shambhu Lal Regar, had filmed the act and uploaded the video on social media.

The gruesome murder, which created a nation-wide outrage, has come to the limelight after five years following the similar killing of tailor Kanhaiya Lal in Udaipur earlier this week.

Chief Minister Ashok Gehlot has expressed the hope that investigation in the Udaipur case will be conducted at a fast pace after the National Investigation Agency (NIA) takes over the probe. The NIA has obtained custody of the accused on Saturday.

Meanwhile, the Congress has dismissed the charge of “appeasement policy” being followed towards Muslims by the Rajasthan government, and pointed out that the people of a particular party had at the time taken out a rally in support of Regar of the Rajsamand hate killing case, climbed atop a court complex and hoisted their flag there after removing the tricolour.

Regar, 40, had filmed the act of killing Afrazul on December 6, 2017, with the help of his minor nephew. The video showed the labourer begging for his life. Later, Regar circulated two more videos with hate speeches from the Jodhpur Central Jail asking Hindus to unite against Jihadis.

While Regar was lodged in the high-security Central Jail in Jodhpur as an undertrial prisoner, the trial against him was in progress in the Sessions Court in Rajsamand. Jaidev Kachhawa, Public Prosecutor in Rajsamand district court, told The Hindu on Saturday that the trial was at the stage of recording of evidence and examination of witnesses.

Regar, a resident of Rajnagar, was seen claiming in the video clip that he had taken revenge for “love jihad” (cross-community marital relationships) and warned that anyone challenging the Hindus would “meet the same fate”. He attacked the victim, while asking the minorities to leave the country, and poured petrol over the semi-conscious man and threw a burning matchstick on him.