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| Edited By: DNA Web Team |Source: DNA webdesk |Updated: May 22, 2022, 10:22 AM IST
An incident of alleged lynching of a mentally challenged senior citizen, who later passed away, has created political turmoil in Madhya Pradesh. The incident is from Neemuch district in the state. The differently-abled man who later went missing and was found dead was seen being slapped repeatedly in a video. A man demanded to see his Aadhaar card and asked if his name was ‘Mohammad’ while beating him, the video showed.
The family of 65-year-old Bhawarlal Jain from Ratlam district’s Sarsi village found the video and reported it to the police. Jain had gone missing last Monday (May 16) after attending a religious programme in Rajasthan’s Chittorgarh. Three days later on Thursday, Jain was found dead at Rampura Road, 38 km from Neemuch district headquarters.
A 38-year-old man named Dinesh Kushwaha was arrested by the MP police for allegedly murdering the man on Saturday. “After performing the last rites of the deceased, his family members came to know about a video which showed the purported assault and informed police,” said the police who have registered a case against Kushwaha under Indian Penal Code (IPC) sections 302 (murder) and 304 (culpable homicide not amounting to murder). The video was probably shot on May 19, it added. Probe in underway in the incident, MP Home Minister Narottam Mishra confirmed.
MP | Police arrested the accused Dinesh Kushwaha. He's being interrogated. He accepted that he is the one that is being seen in the viral video. From the video, it can be seen that the deceased was not able to tell his identity as he was mentally unstable: Suraj Kumar, SP Neemuch pic.twitter.com/cA69ssHWMT — ANI MP/CG/Rajasthan (@ANI_MP_CG_RJ) May 21, 2022
Alleged political link of accused sparks uproar
Alleged political links of the accused have triggered outrage and a political war or words. The Congress party has alleged that the accused is a member of the ruling Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP).
“I have got information that a crime has been registered against Dinesh Kushwaha of BJP under (IPC) section 302 (murder). Let's see if he gets arrested or not,” tweeted Congress leader and Rajya Sabha member Digvijaya Singh.
Questions over the law-and-order situation in MP were raised by state Congress chief Kamal Nath too.
“What is happening in Madhya Pradesh after all? Tribals were lynched in Seoni, incidents of Guna, Mhow, Mandla and now an elderly person whose name is said to be Bhanwarlal Jain (is killed) in Manasa of Neemuch district of the state,” he tweeted.
सिवनी की तरह यहाँ भी आरोपी का जुड़ाव भाजपा से जुड़ा होना सामने आ रहा है…
प्रदेश की क़ानून व्यवस्था आख़िर कहाँ है , कब तक लोगों को यूँ ही मारा जाता रहेगा…?
अपराधियों के हौसले इतने बुलंद क्यों है…?
सरकार का ध्यान तो सिर्फ़ इवेंट में है.. — Kamal Nath (@OfficeOfKNath) May 21, 2022
In response to the accusations by the Congress leaders, BJP secretary Rajneesh Agrawal said that the incident has nothing to do with the party and no perpetrators of such incidents will be spared by the BJP-led government in the state. He countered Congress accusing its previous government in MP of protecting criminals
“The incident is unfortunate. An accused is an accused and it has nothing to do with the party politics. None of the people involved in such acts will be spared by the state government. Our party believes in the rule of law,” Agrawal told news agency PTI.
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