On bail, Bulandshahr violence accused gets garlanded, hugged, photographed

Source: hindustantimes.com

One of the accused in the Syana violence of December last year, in which a police inspector was killed, received a hero’s welcome on his release from the Bulandshahr district jail on Saturday evening, according to a video circulated on social media.

In all, six accused were released after the Allahabad high court granted them bail, the lawyer representing the accused said.

The video shows the supporters of BJP’s youth wing leader Shikhar Agarwal garlanding him and shouting slogans like ‘Bharat Mata Ki Jai’ and ‘Vande Mataram’.

Vishwa Hindu Parishad leader Upendra Raghav was also among those freed. The accused have spent over seven months behind bars.

Sanjay Sharma, the lawyer representing the accused, said, “The Allahabad high court granted bail to six accused in the Syana violence, including Shikhar Agarwal and Upendra Raghav and they were released from the Bulandshahr district jail on Saturday evening.”

Jitendra alias Jeetu Fauji of Mahav village, Saurabh, Hemraj and Rohit Raghav of Chingrawthi village were also released on bail.

The main accused, Yogesh Raj of Bajrang Dal, was also booked under sedition and other charges. He is still in jail.

Violence had erupted outside the Chingrawthi police post in Bulandshahr after an alleged incident of cow slaughter in the village of Mahav nearby on December 2 last year. A youth, Sumit, resident of Chnigrawthi, was killed in alleged police firing and a mob cornered inspector Subodh Kumar Singh of Syana police station and allegedly shot him dead. Villagers also set a police post on fire and torched many vehicles. Over a dozen villagers and police personnel also sustained injuries in the clash.

The accused were booked on charges of sedition, inciting violence and spreading hatred in the society.

After the violence, the state government had formed a special investigation team to probe the case. The then in-charge of Chingrawthi police post registered a case against 27 named and 50-60 unidentified people in connection with the violence.

Later, SIT identified the troublemaker through video clips and intelligence inputs and booked 44 people, including Shikhar Agarwal, Upendra Raghav and Yogesh Raj, for inciting violence, spreading hatred and on many more charges. Later, sedition charges were also imposed on all the arrested accused.