Condoling the death of Akhara Parishad president Mahant Narendra Giriji in suspicious condition, the Uttar Pradesh Congress on Tuesday demanded that the investigation into the case be conducted by the CBI under the supervision of Supreme Court or a division bench of the Allahabad High Court.
Addressing a press conference at the party’s state headquarters her on Tuesday, Congress Working Committee member and former Rajya Sabha member Pramod Tiwari and UP Congress president Ajay Kumar Lallu jointly expressed their anger over the incident and said that so far 21 saints had been killed in the present rule of Yogi Adityanath who calls himself `a yogi.
“In Yogi Adityanath's rule, Uttar Pradesh has become a state of killings and heinous crimes and the NCRB data also confirms this,” Tewari charged.
He said that the death of Mahant Narendra Giri under suspicious circumstances was sad not only for the Sant Samaj but also for the country. “The offense of suppressing the facts of this incident will not be accepted at any cost,” he added.
Tewari asked why, how and under whose pressure the police termed Mahant Narendra Giri’s death a suicide without the post-mortem findings. He said that the Congress was concerned that no other sadhu or sanyasis should be killed. “Even dharmacharyas are not safe in Yogi raj,” he said.
The Congress leader said that a video going viral should also be made a part of the investigation. “What transpired between the deputy chief minister and the mahantji during their meeting a day before the incident, should also be a matter of investigation. What was the compulsion if he committed suicide?” he said.
UP Congress president Ajay Kumar Lallu said that Yogi raj had turned into ‘Dushasan raj.
“Here even people having Y category security are not safe. The way this tragic incident has happened, the country is saddened,” he said
Raising questions, he said that after opening the door of Mahantji's room, on whose behest his body was brought down without calling the police? “No one's life is safe under Yogi's rule. In Uttar Pradesh, which is sitting on top of the country in crime, it is a sin to cover up the killing of saints, and Congress will not allow this sin to happen,” the UPCC chief said.
Lallu said, “It was a general discussion that Mahantji was unable to sign, then who wrote the 7-page suicide note? Who conspired at the highest level to grab the property of the muth?”
He said if the suicide note itself was to be taken as true, then three persons were named in it but only one person was named in the FIR. “On whose behalf this was done?” he asked.
He said that just as the Yogi government tried many tricks to discredit the Hathras incident as false, in the same way, it was bent on calling this incident a suicide.