Agra: The Agra Police Wednesday arrested four alleged members of the Akhil Bharat Hindu Mahasabha (ABHM) for planning cow slaughter in order to implicate four Muslim men.
According to the police, the ‘members’ of the Hindutva group — Sanjay Jat, Jitendra Kushwaha, Brajesh Bhadoria and Saurabh Sharma — colluded with rivals of the four Muslim men to hatch this conspiracy.
After investigating the background of the accused persons, the police plan to take action against them under the Uttar Pradesh Gangsters and Anti-Social Activities (Prevention) Act, ThePrint has learnt.
Jat has 15 criminal cases registered against him. He, the police said, had put together a large crew and, despite having been expelled from the ABHM, had posed as its “national spokesperson”, granting positions to members of his crew and creating false cells with various names similar to that of the Hindutva organisation. About a dozen women and two dozen men made up his crew, the police added.
On 30 March, the police said, Jat and his accomplices allegedly got a cow slaughtered in a field near Agra’s Mehtab Bagh and falsely accused four Muslim men — Rizwan, Nakeem, Chhotu and Shanu — of the act.
The spot of the slaughter is situated between Gautam Nagar, a Dalit colony, and Abbaspur, a Muslim area. In order to prevent the situation from escalating and to maintain peace, the police had filed a case against the four Muslim men.
After the police investigation brought the conspiracy to light, the alleged ABHM members were arrested Wednesday.
Sanjay Jat, the police said, could be “hired” to protest for any cause. One of his close associates informed the police that Jat would show up to these protests with saffron kurtas, gamchas, and a pre-made effigy that could easily be labelled with the name of the target of the protest.
The police are now looking into the alleged criminal activities of Jat’s crew members, most of whom have gone underground.
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