CM Yogi Adityanath, Silent on Cop's Murder by Mob, Meets His Family After Three Days

Lucknow: Three days after Uttar Pradesh Police inspector Subodh Kumar Singh was shot dead during mob violence in Bulandshahr, chief minister Yogi Adityanath found time to meet his family on Thursday.

The station house officer’s wife, two sons and sister came to the chief minister's Lucknow residence for the meeting, which was scheduled after Adityanath faced massive criticism for not saying anything on the murder, but promising to act tough against the alleged incident of cow slaughter.

The family of the slain police officer has accused the chief minister of indulging in cow politics at the expense of law and order. Subodh Singh’s sister had alleged that the murder was a conspiracy to silence him as he was the investigating officer in the Mohammad Akhlaq lynching case.

“My brother was investigating Akhlaq case and that is why he was killed. It’s a conspiracy by the police. He should be declared a martyr and a memorial should be built. We do not want money. Chief Minister Yogi Adityanath only keeps saying ‘cow, cow, cow’,” she had said a day after the murder.

Singh was shot in the head on Monday while he was trying to control the protests after cow carcasses were found in a forest near Bulandshahr.

After belatedly calling a meeting to review the security situation in Bulandshahr on Tuesday night, the Uttar Pradesh chief minister had directed the police to take strict action against those involved in the alleged cow slaughter and not said a word about the cop’s killers.

The police has named 28 men in a case of murder and attempt to murder, of which eight belong to right-wing outfits Bajrang Dal, VHP and the BJP’s own youth wing. There is also suspicion that the entire incident was an attempt to manufacture a riot due to the timing, the location and the sequence of events.

The cow slaughter that the UP government said triggered the violence was seen by only Bajrang Dal member Yogesh Raj, who is also the main accused in the inspector’s murder and is currently absconding.

Senior police officials also punched holes in Raj’s version of events as they said that the cow carcass may have been two days old.

There are also other oddities in the run-up to the violence, like how the cow carcasses were hung up for display despite it being a sensitive issue in the area and how Hindu groups suddenly arrived at the spot that give credence to the theory that it was a right-wing conspiracy to stoke tension.

Yet, the state government has decided to focus on cow slaughter. The chief minister had already faced the flak from the opposition parties for attending a laser show in Gorakhpur on Tuesday. When the violence broke out in Bulandshahr on Monday, he was campaigning in Rajasthan.

The Opposition has said that such incidents are part of attempts to incite communal unrest in the society ahead of polls.