India News | Minority Community Group with Agenda Responsible for Recent Murders: BJP Leader on Amravati Killing

Amravati, Jul 7 (PTI) BJP leader Kapil Mishra on Thursday alleged that a minority community group comprising political leaders, journalists and lawyers was running a particular agenda, and blamed it for the spate of recent murders in the country.

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He made the allegation while talking to reporters in Amravati after meeting the family members of city-based chemist Umesh Kolhe, 54, who was killed here on June 21. Police claimed that Kolhe was killed for sharing a post in WhatsApp groups supporting suspended BJP leader Nupur Sharma's controversial remarks about Prophet Mohammad.

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The Delhi BJP leader also alleged that Amravati has become a laboratory of extremist religious groups to experiment terrorism, and accused the local police of hiding facts "for many days" in Kolhe's murder case.

"A group belonging to a particular community is running an agenda in the country by crying foul over the community being insecure on account of being a minority," he said.

"Several big leaders, journalists and lawyers are part of this group. All of them are responsible for the murders taking place in the country. This group is preparing the ground for recruiting terrorists in the country. The actual killers are just like puppets, but behind them is this group," Mishra alleged.

Mishra handed over a cheque of Rs 30 lakh to Kolhe's family. The amount was raised through his organistion 'Hindu Ecosystem'.

"Amravati has become a laboratory for extremist religious groups to experiment terrorism. Innocent people are bearing the brunt as this kind of terrorism was protected by those who were in power (in Maharashtra)," he said apparently referring to the previous Uddhav Thackeray-led government that collapsed last week.

"The events that took place in the last one year bear testimony to this. Last November, Raza Academy and other minority organisations had taken out a morcha that resulted in violence in Amravati. An effort was made to spread terror. Since this attempt of spreading terror was ignored, innocent people are paying the price of it," he alleged.

Raising question marks over the functioning of the police department, Mishra said the police should resist from shielding terrorists even as governments change.

"In the Umesh Kolhe case, police tried to hide the facts for many days. Police were not doing their duty properly. Truth, however, came out as soon as power changed hands in Maharashtra. Had the police acted in time against the people spreading terror, Kolhe would not have been murdered," Mishra said.

He alleged that some Islamic organisations were trying to spread terrorism, and called for their ban.

A week after Kolhe's murder, Udaipur-based tailor Kanhaiya Lal was killed allegedly for his social media post in support of Nupur Sharma.

Meanwhile, Independent MLA Ravi Rana on Thursday claimed that the Congress did not "stand behind" the family of Umesh Kolhe.

Rana also denied allegations that one of the accused in the case had links with him and his wife, MP Navneet Rana and helped them in election campaign.

Reacting to Congress' allegation that Sheikh Irfaan, the main accused in the case, had worked for them in the 2019 elections, Ravi Rana said," I do not know who this Shaikh Irfan is. I have never met him. I have no connection with him. I never appeared in any photograph with him."

Coming down on Congress, Rana, speaking with a Marathi news channel, asked why Congress "did not stand behind the Kolhe family."

"It was Navneet Rana who wrote to the home ministry and demanded NIA probe in this case. While we visited the Kolhe family, no Congress leader went there.

He also claimed that local police initially tried to suppress the case by treating it as a robbery.

Speaking to reporters, Navneet Rana, who represents Amravati in the Lok Sabha, asked whose government was in power when a tailor was killed in Rajasthan (allegedly for similar reasons) and Kolhe was killed in Maharashtra.

The independent MP also alleged that former district guardian minister Yashomati Thakur of the Congress did not visit the Kolhe family after the incident.

(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)