BJP leader says that if no action is taken against the family within 20 days, the village will witness public anger

A group of BJP and Shiv Sena leaders, defying the prohibitory orders in place in Dadri, on Monday held a meeting in Bishahra, demanding action against the family of Mohammad Akhlak, who was lynched in September last by a mob over rumours that he and his family had eaten beef.

Open threats and warnings were issued to the local administration that if it did not register an FIR against the family for cow slaughter, the village would witness public anger.

“We give them 20 days. If there is no action against Akhlak’s family in that time, I cannot guarantee that I can control public anger,” said local BJP leader Sanjay Rana, who is also the father of Vishal Rana, one of the accused in Akhlak’s lynching.

The police said on Monday that it won’t allow any panchayat or meeting in the village as it may lead to communal tension in the area. Gautam Budh Nagar District Magistrate N.P. Singh earlier in the day invoked Section 144 of the CrPc banning gathering of five or more persons in the district.

Armed with the forensic report from a Mathura lab, which declared that the meat at the centre of the lynching was actually beef, Mr. Rana said, “We had been yelling at the top of our voices that a cow was slaughtered, but nobody listened to us then. That has been established now by the forensic report. The logical thing would be to do justice and punish the guilty by registering a case against Akhlak and his family for slaughtering a cow.”

A recovery memo prepared by the police, however, revealed that the meat sample that was declared as beef by the Mathura lab was collected not from Akhlak’s house but from the place where the mob allegedly gathered to attack Akhlak.