Indian media outlet The Print reported on Sunday that police booked a former BJP MLA for “allegedly promoting hatred and enmity.”
According to the report, Gyan Dev Ahuja, a former BJP MLA, was caught on tape saying his supporters had lynched five people so far for cow smuggling. He was arrested and booked by the Alwar police in the northern Indian state of Rajasthan.
A video that had popped up after Ahuja visited the family of a man allegedly lynched by Muslims on Friday led to the case being registered, according to Shiv Shankar, the station house officer for Govindgarh police station.
As per Shankar, the first information report was filed under Section 153-A of the Indian Penal Code for promoting hatred and enmity based on religion.
According to the report, the former BJP MLA could be heard saying: “We have so far lynched five people, whether in Lawandi or Behror … I have given a free hand to workers to kill. “We will secure bail for them and get them acquitted.”
A Hindu vigilante attacked Khan while transporting cows in India in April 2017.
Sanjay Singh Naruka, BJP’s Alwar (South) chief, was quoted as saying his party “doesn’t have this thinking,” and Ahuja’s views are his alone.
When asked for a comment, Ahuja said, “anyone involved in cow smuggling and slaughter will not escape punishment.”.
According to him, his workers beat up five Muslims from the Mev community for allegedly smuggling cows.
BJP chief Ahuja and Rajasthan Congress chief Govind Singh Dotasra were blasted in the video.
Is further evidence needed of the BJP’s religious terror and bigotry? The natural face of the BJP has come to the fore across the country,” he wrote on Twitter.
In April, the US State Department issued a report on human rights violations in India, outlining extrajudicial killings by government agents, violence against Muslims, and killings in occupied Kashmir by government and non-government forces.
According to credible information from the US State Department, several Indian cities are being targeted by Muslims.
In certain areas, Muslim communities remained vulnerable to communal violence and discrimination. According to the report, militants continued to abuse Muslim communities, discriminate against them, forcibly displace them, and lynch them for suspected cow smuggling.
