Hapur lynching: SC agrees to urgent hearing in case after accused unknowingly admits to murder on camera

After an undercover investigation by NDTV , during which the accused in the Hapur lynching case purportedly admitted to the crime, the Supreme Court on Tuesday agreed to urgently take up the case. The lawyers of one of the victims  requested an urgent hearing after the news channel aired the sting operation. Chief Justice of India Dipak Misra has agreed to hear the petition on 13 August. On 18 June, 45-year-old cattle trader Qasim Qureshi was lynched, and 65-year-old farmer Samayuddin was brutally beaten  over rumours of cow slaughter  in Hapur district’s Bajhera Khurd village in Uttar Pradesh. Several videos and photographs of the mob thrashing the two men had emerged on social media after the incident. Among them was a video that purportedly shows a mob beating up a man and forcing him to confess to having slaughtered a cow. The clip went viral on social media. Samayuddin, who was brutally assaulted by the mob allegedly after a minor tiff with a man on a motorcycle, can be seen pleading with the attackers. The mob can be heard asking him to identify the others they thought had slaughtered a cow. The police made four arrests after the Hapur lynching, naming a local resident, Yudhishthir Singh Sisodia, as the main accused. However, Sisodia was let off on bail days later. In the footage aired by NDTV, Rakesh Sisodia, who is among the nine charged with murder, attempt to murder and rioting in the case, purportedly admits to the crime and does so proudly. “They were slaughtering cows, so I slaughtered them,” Rakesh Sisodia tells a team from NDTV posing as researchers doing field work on Hindutva outfits. In a written statement to the court, he had earlier claimed to have no role in the attack and not being present at the spot at the time of the lynching. Bragging about the incident unknowingly on camera, he said he was ready to carry out similar attacks again. “My army is ready. If anyone slaughters a cow, we will kill them and go to jail a thousand times,” he said. Sisodia also claimed that the attackers had police support. “The police are on our side because of the government,” he said. “Otherwise, nothing would have happened if Azam Khan (a minister under the previous Samajwadi Party regime) was in power.” He also purportedly said that he had admitted to the lynching before jail authorities. “I wasn’t scared to go to jail. I caught the attention of the jailer, who had asked me what my case was. I said my case fell under sections 302 and 307 (of the Indian Penal Code) for full and half murder. They slaughtered cows, I slaughtered them,” he said on camera.