Uttar Pradesh Chief Minister Yogi Adityanath at an election rally in Unnao on Tuesday said those involved in cow slaughter would be dealt with sternly within the boundaries of the law.
While Mr. Adityanath had in the past too issued such warnings, his remarks come in the backdrop of the Allahabad High Court recently observing that the anti-cow slaughter law was being misused against innocent persons in the State.
In Bangermau, which is scheduled to hold bypoll along with six other seats, Mr. Adityanath said: “If anyone [is involved] in cow slaughter, that person will land in jail.”
“We will protect gau mata [mother cow] at all costs,” the CM said, adding that his government would deal with ‘sternly’ those accused of the crime “within the boundaries of law”.
In an order dated October 19, the HC observed that “accused persons in cow slaughter cases in U.P. continue to be in jail for an offence that may not have been committed at all and which is triable by a Magistrate Class I, having a maximum sentence up to 7 years. UP Prevention of Cow Slaughter Act, 1955 is being misused against innocent persons,” it said as it granted bail to Rahmuddin, a person from Shamli accused of alleged cow slaughter and in jail since August though there was no allegation against him in the FIR.
Mr. Adityanath’s speech was also laced with references to the Ram Mandir and dilution of Article 370.
On the one hand he claimed that there had been no riots in the State since his government came to power in 2017. On the other, referring to the protests against the Citizenship [Amendment] Act last year, he said the damage to public property was recovered from the accused by selling their houses.
“We also put up their posters,” Mr. Adityanath said, referring to the controversial “name and shame banners” put up in Lucknow of those activists and persons accused of vandalism and arson during the protest last December but who are not yet convicted of the alleged crime.