Bulandshahr: Police Eyewitnesses Detail How Bajrang Dal Set Up Inspector’s Death

BULANDSHAHR, Uttar Pradesh — Nine eyewitnesses, including two policemen, gave HuffPost India granular details on how the Bajrang Dal, an affiliate of the ruling Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP), orchestrated the mob attack on a police outpost in Bulandshahr district of Uttar Pradesh, resulting in the death of a policeman and a civilian on 3 December. Station House Officer Subodh Kumar Singh was killed as he sought to quickly disperse an angry mob that was primed to attack a small group of Muslim men returning from a nearby Muslim congregation, the policemen who accompanied him said. Had the mob succeeded in attacking the Muslims, a policeman said, the district would have erupted in a full-blown communal carnage. "If not for his martyrdom, entire Bulandshahr would be burning now," said the policeman, who was part of SHO Singh's posse. The policemen appeared visibly scared as they spoke and sought anonymity as they feared for their lives and employment.

Their testimonies reveal how the Yogi Adityanath-led BJP government has lost control of the Hindutva forces it once used to enforce its writ. The violence in Bulandshahr began soon after villagers found cow carcasses in the fields owned by Raj Kumar, a farmer from Mahav village. Raj Kumar, who has since been named as one of the accused in SHO Singh's death, rushed to the spot and (his family members told HuffPost India) immediately informed the Chingaravati police post about the incident. SHO Singh, and a small group of police officers, arrived soon after. A policeman present at the spot told HuffPost India that it was clear that the carcasses were of cows killed at a different place and then transported to the area.


But the police were on alert because they knew that tensions were high as lakhs of Muslim men had gathered for a three-day congregation, called Tablighi Itjema, on the outskirts of Bulandshahr.
"The sense that we got after reaching the spot was that cows were slaughtered somewhere else and brought there," said the policeman who, along with SHO Singh, was amongst the first to reach the spot. "Kotwal Sahab understood that it was a conspiracy to foment communal tensions in the area as Tablighi Itjema was going on in the district." "Kotwal" is the local term for station house officer, the rank held by Subodh Kumar Singh.

Singh convinced the villagers to calm down and bury the carcasses, the policeman said, but members of the Bajrang Dal, particularly the prime accused Yogesh Raj, the district convener of the Dal insisted that the carcasses be loaded in a tractor trolley and taken to the nearest police outpost.
Raj then instigated the crowd to block the highway, the policeman said, prompting fears that they were firing up the mob of Hindu villagers to attack a group of Muslim men returning from the Tablighi Itjema. "Kotwal Sahab understood their conspiracy and ordered a lathi charge to disperse the crowd," the policeman said. "Imagine what would have happened if lakhs of Muslims, gathered in the district for Tablighi Ijtema, would have got the news of the attack on these three men." Instead, the mob turned on the police. Videos of the incident show young men, armed with sticks and bricks, storming the police compound. .. read more:


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