Lucknow: The Bulandshahr mob violence in which a police inspector and a youngster were killed was a larger conspiracy, with the likely intent to clash with the Muslim procession passing through Bulandshahr-Garhmukteshwar State Highway on Monday.
These are some of the key findings of a probe report prepared by the Additional Director General (Intelligence) SB Shirodkar. The report has been submitted to the UP police chief and will be given to chief minister Yogi Adityanath on Friday.
The report said that the biggest sign of the violence being a pre-planned conspiracy was that the cow carcass found at the spot, which was the trigger, was 48 hours old and was most likely not slaughtered in Sayana village as claimed by Barjrang Dal’s district head Yogesh Raj, who had in his police complaint stated that he witnessed the cow being killed.
It further said that the mob behaviour suggests that some in the crowd were deliberately trying to escalate the situation and ensure violence.
“They didn't lift the road blockade even after an FIR was registered (based on Yogesh Raj’s complaint. When inspector Subodh Kumar Singh informed them that a case was lodged, some in the mob fled with the tractor and left the trolley with remains of dead animal parked on the road to block it,” reads the report.
The ADG said this is when inspector Subodh and some officers, including the tehsildar, realised that the intent could be to confront the crowd that was shortly to return from the Muslim convention that had just got over some 30 km away.
Sensing trouble, they tried to remove the trolley with the carcass, but encountered stiff resistance and this is when the violence escalated.
Calling it a failure of intelligence, Shirodkar asked why there was no prior warning about a possible conspiracy to stage a riot after spreading rumours of cow slaughter.
“Though force was sent on spot including 25 men of PAC, more force should have been sent during the crucial hours between 9 am and 1 pm,” the report added.
It remains to be seen whether something comes out of this report as the UP government and the police chief have stated that their first priority is to catch the cow slaughterers and not the cop’s killers. The government had also ordered a separate SIT probe, whose report is also awaited.
The police have arrested four Muslim men for the cow slaughter, despite holes in Yogesh Raj’s version.
Earlier he had claimed to have seen the men slaughtering the cow, but later in a video released from hiding, stated that he went to the spot where the cow carcasses were hung after receiving a phone call. The men named in his complaint also included two minors, aged 11 and 12, and three men who live in Delhi-NCR.
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