india

Updated: Dec 05, 2018 18:34 IST

Uttar Pradesh chief minister Yogi Adityanath will meet the widow and family of inspector Subodh Kumar Singh, who was killed in Monday’s violence in Bulandshahr district, on Thursday amid an opposition attack on the “deteriorating” law and order situation in the state.

“Yes, the chief minister will meet slain inspector Subodh Kumar Singh’s wife at his 5, Kalidas Marg residence in Lucknow on Thursday morning,” said an official spokesperson.

Singh was one of the two men killed by a rampaging mob protesting the alleged slaughter of cows in Mahav village of the district. Several leaders of right-wing Hindu groups have been arrested for murder and rioting in connection with the violence.

Police said the prime suspect in the Monday morning’s violence is a man named Yogesh Raj. Police refused to confirm Raj’s political affiliations, but the regional coordinator of the Bajrang Dal, the youth wing of the Vishva Hindu Parishad (VHP), Balraj Singh Dungar, said Raj was the convenor of the Bulandshahr unit of the Dal.

Raj is yet to be arrested.

Singh’s wife Rajni Rathore had threatened to commit suicide if those guilty for killing her husband go unpunished. The family has also demanded a probe by the Central Bureau of Investigation (CBI).

“My husband was a brave man. He used to lead from the front... My husband was killed in a planned manner as part of a conspiracy. If the guilty go unpunished, I will commit suicide by shooting myself at Bulandshahr police lines,” she said before the funeral of her husband was performed in his Taregawan village in Etah on Tuesday.

Singh was a part of the initial investigation into the lynching of Mohammad Akhlaq in Dadri in Greater Noida region in 2015 following allegations of cow slaughter.

Adityanath’s decision to meet Rathore is also being considered significant in the backdrop of reports of simmering unrest among a section of policemen who allegedly sympathised with constable Prashant Chaudhary arrested for the killing of Apple executive Vivek Tiwari in Lucknow recently.

The chief minister had convened a meeting of senior officers, including chief secretary Anoop Chandra Pandey and director general of police OP Singh, on Tuesday evening to get feedback about the Bulandshahr violence. He had asked the officers to ensure strict action against those involved in cow slaughter.

“The Bulandshahr incident was a part of a larger conspiracy and all those involved in it should be arrested,” the chief minister had said without elaborating.

Major opposition parties, including the Samajwadi Party, Congress and Bahujan Samaj Party (BSP) have targeted Adityanath for the Bulandshahr violence and the “deteriorating” law and order situation in Uttar Pradesh.

“The Bulandshahr incident was a result of wrong policies of the BJP government,” BSP chief Mayawati said in a statement on Tuesday.

BJP ally Suheldev Bharatiya Samaj party (SBSP) has blamed right-wing groups for the violence. “There was a conspiracy to fan communal violence for poll gains,” Om Prakash Rajbhar, SBSP leader and a minister in the state BJP government, said.

Samajwadi Party leader Azam Khan said the Special Investigation Team (SIT) must try to find out from where cow carcasses, which sparked the violence, came, besides probing other aspects of the crime.

UP Congress president Raj Babbar said the situation reflected “deteriorating” law and order, despite the chief minister praising the security situation outside the state.