THE fact that a riot in which two people belonging to the minority community were lynched and escaped death only because they were rescued by the police occurred in Karhal, Mainpuri which is a bastion of the Samajwadi Party in which all other parties have been marginalised is a matter of great concern.  Mukut Singh, state secretariat member, CPI(M) visited Karhal on October 14 after the market re-opened.  He had been closely monitoring the situation from October 9 onwards.  His report is as follows:

A cow belonging to Thakur Ghanshyam Singh died on the 8th night.  He appealed to two Quraishi youths, Lalla and Rafiq, to remove the carcass.  They refused.  The reason for this was not only the fact that they said that they only skinned buffaloes but also that a short while ago, Ghanshyam Singh’s buffalo had died and he had agreed to pay them 1000 to remove its carcass but, even after they had done this, he had not paid them.  However, other people from the area came and requested the two young men and promised them that they would be paid Rs 200 and could keep the skin.  They took the cow away to another part of the town in order to skin it.  Many people saw them taking away the dead cow.  Many people now agree that the cow had died of some illness.

They took the dead cow outside the town to one side of Devi Road and started skinning it when a rumour was spread that a cow had been killed.  People collected and attacked the two young men.  They were stripped and almost beaten to death.  The police arrived in the nick of time and rescued them.  The CO and policemen were also attacked (the police themselves have said that they were even fired upon) and their vehicles were burnt and damaged.  Somehow the police could remove the two wounded men from there.

About 2 hours after this, the cow was placed on a hand cart and taken towards Karhal town.  It was placed in the middle of Kishni Chauraha and a road jam started.  Rumours continued to fly and more people collected but there was no response from the administration.  After about one and a half hours, the handcart with the cow was taken through the main Karhal Bazaar and, on the Mainpuri-Etawah road, upto the Jain Inter College Tiraha which is very close to Saifai (Mulayam Singh’s village).  The road here was then jammed.  Very objectionable slogans against Muslims and against UP minister, Azam Khan, were raised.  The jam was so long that it reached right up to Saifai, three kilometers away.  After about one and half hours, the DIG arrived from Agra with a big police contingent and dispersed the mob.  While many of its members were running away, they stoned and burned shops belonging to Muslims especially in the Subzi Mandi area.  The Muslims just shut themselves up in their homes and did not react at all.  Nor did anyone come forward to oppose the arson.  It has been calculated that losses totaling between 5-6 lakhs have been incurred but no compensation has been paid so far.  However, there are plenty of rumours that the state government is doling out compensation money to the Muslims.

The chairman of Karhal town is Sanjeev Yadav, an SP leader who likes to refer to himself as a local ‘Modi’.  During the elections he announced that he did not want any Muslims to vote for him. Some people feel that he has done some good work like providing water and installing CCTV cameras but others say that his work is restricted to Hindu areas. His younger brother, Titu Yadav, has been named along with RSS and BJP members in the police FIR for having raised provocative slogans and carrying kerosene.  He has not been arrested so far.

Another prominent accused is Avneesh Kumar alias Bittu whose mother, Malti, is a BJP corporator.  She and her daughter-in-law led a procession of more than a hundred women shouting anti-minority, provocative slogans.  They were taken to the police station but later released.  Avneesh Kumar has been arrested as has Rakesh Chandel, BJP’s block president.

There definitely seems to be a well-planned conspiracy behind the events.  The timing is also important – on the 9th, voting for panchayat elections was being carried out in different parts of the district and division and, therefore, the police was very hard-pressed. It is still very surprising and reprehensible that, in the pocket borough of the ruling party, the carcass of a cow could be taken from place to place for about 5-6 hours without any hindrance.  If this had been stopped, the arson and violence could have been prevented.

 After 5 days, the bazaar finally opened on the 14th. In this period, no leader from the Samajwadi Party has bothered to visit the area.  Action has been taken against 27 people belonging to the majority community.  Cases under Rioting and 7th Criminal Amendment Act etc, have been registered against them.  Unfortunately, a case against skinning a dead cow publicly has been registered against Lalla and Rafiq who have been admitted in the Saifai Medical College.