Mathura violence: Transfer of district magistrate, senior cop an eyewash: BJP

New Delhi: BJP on Monday trashed the Uttar Pradesh government’s decision to transfer the district magistrate and Senior Superintendent of Police of Mathura in the wake of Jawahar Bagh violence as an “eyewash” and an attempt to “cover up its sins” and demanded that Chief Minister Akhilesh Yadav act against his uncle and Cabinet minister Shivpal Yadav. [caption id=“attachment_2819650” align=“alignleft” width=“380”] Aftermath of Mathura violence. Twitter CNN-News18[/caption] The state government was “murderous” and Ram Vriksh Yadav, the encroachers’ leader who died in last week’s violent clash with policemen which left 29 people, including an SP and an SHO dead, was patronised by Shivpal Yadav, BJP charged. Sending unprepared police to take on his gang amounted to sending them to their death, the party said. “…Akhilesh Yadav’s decision to transfer DM and SSP is an eyewash, an attempt to cover up his government’s sins. If he has to act, then he must act against his Cabinet minister,” party’s national secretary Shrikant Sharma said. He alleged that there was an attempt to lease out the 280 acres of government land, which the accused had illegally captured, to the encroachers and blamed a nexus between them and ruling SP for development. He also took a dig at those who had returned their awards over the intolerance issue, saying it was shocking that such a big incident happened in Mathura and none of them was saying anything. District Magistrate Rajesh Kumar and SSP Rakesh Kumar Singh were transferred on Monday days after violent clashes between encroachers belonging to a cult — Azad Bharat Vidhik Vaicharik Kranti Satyagrahi — an outfit that claimed to owe allegiance to Netaji Subhas Chandra Bose, and policemen left 29 people dead. BJP has also demanded a CBI probe into the matter. Sharma claimed that more than 900 cases of attack on police by “goons” affiliated to Samajwadi Party have occurred since it came to power and law and order has collapsed in UP. In this year, such attacks have increased and there is one incident of assault on police every 32 hours in the state, he alleged.