Efforts are on to apprehend three more accused
Team Clarion
NEW DELHI — Two Hindu men were arrested in the Uttar Pradesh city of Ghaziabad for faking cow slaughter aimed at getting even with their business rivals. They also wanted to create communal tension ahead of the Hindu festival of Holi on March 14.
Yogesh Chaudhry and Shivam were arrested for the March 12 incident in Lohia Nagar where some pieces of meat were found.
The Ghaziabad police held a press conference where they divulged all details of the incident. The police said Chaudhry and Shivam staged a fake incident of cow slaughter to implicate their rivals.
“The police got a tip-off related to cow slaughter at a cowshed in Lohia Nagar which falls under the Sahni police station. Prima facie, we got to know that pieces of meat were thrown there after bringing it from somewhere else. They had planned to implicate someone else,” a police officer told media persons.
When the police conducted a thorough investigation, it was found that there were two adjacent cowsheds in the area. There was some personal rivalry between those overseeing the cowsheds. One cowshed owner bought six kg of meat and threw it at the other cowshed to implicate their owners.
“However, the police have exposed this whole conspiracy and arrested the main conspirator. There are three more accused. The police are making efforts to arrest them. It was all staged to implicate an innocent person and cause religious tension ahead of the Holi festival,” said the officer.
The accused and the victims are relatives.
The incident came to light when Chaudhry called leaders of Hindutva groups informing them about the fake cow slaughter. They had visited the cowshed.
“The matter was sensitive as it happened ahead of the Holi festival. We deployed the entire team to investigate the matter,” said the police officer.
The developments came to light days after a Hindutva leader was arrested for staging a paid protest to implicate an innocent person in the false case of cow slaughter in Saharanpur.
Members of a Hindutva outfit, Hindu Yodha Parivar Sangathan, created a ruckus over the fake case of cow slaughter. It emerged that Chaudhry Vish Singh Kamboj, a prominent leader of the Hindu organisation, staged a paid protest at the behest of one of his friends, Tipu Qureshi, who wanted to implicate one of his rivals in the case.
Last year in February, a similar incident was reported from Moradabad where Bajrang Dal men slaughtered a cow to implicate a Muslim man in a false case. Four persons, including Moradabad district president of Bajrang Dal, Monu Bishnoi, were arrested in the case. They were also accused of conspiring against the police.
