Extensive probes by ADG (Intelligence) SB Shirodkar and also by Special Investigation Team and Special Task Force have so far failed to work out the Bulandshahr violence which was termed as a ‘well-planned conspiracy’ by Chief Minister Yogi Adityanath and DGP OP Singh. However, recent developments buttressed the claims of both the CM and DGP that concerted efforts were made to disturb the communal fabric and incite large-scale violence.
Surprisingly, a development reported from Gonda indicated about a conspiracy similar to Bulandshahr, but timely police intervention averted any untoward incident. What is surprising is that instead of cracking down on the orchestrators, the top cops tried to hush up the incident.
In Bulandshahr too, timely police intervention averted a major communal clash but an inspector had to lay down his life. There, while police officials were handed out marching orders, the mastermind of the sinister design remains at large.
In Gonda, some residents of Bhatpurwa locality saw some persons trying to slaughter a calf earlier this week. They later informed the police control room and soon a Dial-100 Police Response Vehicle (PRV) rushed to the spot. The cops found Ram Sewak Dikshit holding the calf while Mangal Dikshit was trying to kill it. The inebriated duo was arrested and taken to the police station.
Later, SP Gonda said that duo was trying to settle score with someone by slaughtering the calf and naming them. “It is also possible that they were asked by someone to do the job and create trouble in the area,” he said. While Ram Sewak Dikshit has 18 criminal cases against him, Mangal Dikshit is having a murder case and other heinous crimes registered against his name.
Gonda was also in the news for cow smuggling in 2013 when then SP Navneet Rana carried out a sting operation on KC Pandey, an SP leader enjoying the status of a minister in the Akhilesh Yadav government. Pandey reportedly pressured the SP to release some cattle smugglers involved in it. At that time too, the government took no action against Pandey, but Rana was shunted out.
Brazen actions by people close to or linked to the party in power seem to be affecting workers and leaders of the BJP, which claimed itself to be ‘a party with a difference’.
In Hapur, general secretary of the local BJP unit Pramod Jindal threatened a police officer to unleash Bulandshahr-type violence. Jindal called up Hapur SP Sankalp Sharma but the call was taken by his PRO. Jindal allegedly abused SHO of Hafizpur police station for not releasing a BJP leader and threatened to incite communal tension like Bulandshahr. The PRO got a case registered with the local police station but no follow-up action was taken. Meanwhile, the Bulandshahr police claimed to have arrested two more accused, identified as Nitin and Mohit, involved in the violence.