India News | Lynching of Two Tribals in MP: Book State Ram Sena Chief for Murder as He Has Claimed Responsibility, Says CPM

Bhopal, May 9 (PTI) The CPI (M) on Monday claimed that the Madhya Pradesh Ram Sena chief has accepted the responsibility in connection with the killing of two tribal men in Seoni district last week on the suspicion of cow slaughter and demanded registration of an FIR for murder against the Hindutva leader.

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The police, however, said that state Ram Sena chief Shubhan Singh Baghel is "not in a good frame of mind" and keeps on sharing such ridiculous videos.

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Two tribal men were allegedly assaulted by a group of people over the suspicion of cow slaughter in Simaria village under the Kurai police station limits in Madhya Pradesh's Seoni district. They died on May 3 morning.

"The Madhya Pradesh police should register an FIR against state Ram Sena chief Shubhan Singh Baghel who had posted a video claiming the responsibility for the killing of the two tribal men," CPI (M) secretary Jaswinder Singh told reporters here.

He said a CPI (M) "fact finding" delegation had visited Seoni after the incident.

“A case of murder should be registered against Shubham Singh Baghel. All the accused in the case should be arrested and their political links and organisations exposed," Singh said.

Meanwhile, Seoni Superintendent of Police, Kumar Prateek, told PTI that Baghel is not in a good frame of mind.

"He was involved in a mob lynching case in the past. Earlier, the National Security Act (NSA) had been invoked against him. He had also been externed from the (Seoni) district following cases against him," he said, adding that Baghel is disturbed and shares such ridiculous videos.

Singh demanded that police should impartially investigate the killings and not work under pressure.

Prateek, however, denied that police are under any pressure.

“We have arrested 13 accused in just 24 hours (after the incident). Are we under pressure?" he asked.

Singh claimed that the CPI (M)'s six-member delegation, including the party's state secretariat board member Ramnarayan Kuraria, found that the two tribal men- Dhanasram Invati of village Simaria and Sampat Batti of village Sagar in Seoni- were brutally beaten with sticks around 2 am on the intervening night of May 2 and May 3.

They died within a few hours, he claimed.

"According to our delegation's findings, around 20 people raising slogans of Bajarang Dal and Ram Sena stormed into his house and took out Dhanasram who was asleep. When his wife Phoolvati intervened they thrashed her and even tore her clothes," Singh claimed.

These people had brought Sampat from Sagar village along with them. They shouted pro-Bajrang Dal and Ram Sena slogans claiming that the two tribal men had indulged in cow slaughter, he alleged.

"According to family members of Dhansaram, when the mob was beating the duo (Dhansaram and Sampat), Dhansaram's neighbour Brajesh woke up and intervened but he too was thrashed. (Hearing the commotion), the entire village woke up saying that if the two had committed an offence, they should be handed over to the police," Singh claimed.

Police were called and shifted Dhanasram, Sampat and Brijesh in their vehicle to the Kurai government hospital. Dhanasram and Sampat, both labourers, died in the hospital, Singh claimed while referring to the delegation's "findings".

The families of both the deceased are very poor and cannot eke out a living, the CPI (M) leader said.

“Brijesh has lodged a report with the Kurai police station against six people and 10-15 unidentified accused. The accused in the FIR have been named Sher Singh Rathore, Ajay Sahu, Vedant Chauhan, Deepak Awadiya, Basant Raghuvanshi and Raghunandan Raghuvanshi,” Singh said.

He alleged that these people had connections with the Bajrang Dal, RSS, Ram Sena, and Vishwa Hindu Parishad. Their pictures with BJP leaders in hoardings still adore the streets of Seoni, Singh claimed.

However, SP Prateek said that the investigation so far doesn't suggest that the accused belonged to these organisations.

"During the protest following the killings in Seoni, the tribals were alleging that the accused were from these organisations but such connection has not come to the fore during investigations," he said

The Seoni district administration is claiming that 20 kg of meat was seized from Simaria village but villagers denied that any such seizure had been made. This act of police is aimed to save the culprits and declare two deceased and their families as criminals, Singh alleged.

About the seizure, the Seoni SP said that prima facie the meat was beef. Samples were sent to a laboratory in Hyderabad for test and confirmation, he added.

(The above story is verified and authored by Press Trust of India (PTI) staff. PTI, India’s premier news agency, employs more than 400 journalists and 500 stringers to cover almost every district and small town in India.. The views appearing in the above post do not reflect the opinions of LatestLY)