BJP accuses oppn parties over politicising Jharkhand’s mob lynching, says CM has ‘zero tolerance’ on such incidents

Ranchi: The BJP on Tuesday accused the Congress and other Opposition parties of politicising the lynching of a man in Jharkhand’s Seraikela Kharsawan district and claimed that the state government had “zero tolerance” on such incidents.

“The Raghubar Das government has zero tolerance on such incidents. No sooner had the incident come to light, the (district) Superintendent of Police suspended two police personnel on the direction of the government,” Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) state spokesperson Pratul Shah Deo said in a statement.

Tabrez Ansari was allegedly tied to a pole and thrashed with sticks by a mob at Dhatkidih village last Wednesday on the suspicion of a theft. The newly-married man was purportedly seen in a video being forced to chant ‘Jai Shri Ram’ and ‘Jai Hanuman’. The 24-year-old succumbed to his injuries on Saturday.

Deo said 11 people were already arrested in connection with the case and a special investigation team was probing the incident, adding that the process of identifying the remaining accused through video footage was on.

The BJP leader accused the Congress of shedding crocodile tears. He said it was “unfortunate” that the Congress was “politicising” the incident, despite the fact that the grand old party had “triggered the worst mob lynching of Sikhs in 1984” and former prime minister Rajiv Gandhi had said “when a big tree falls, the earth shakes”.

“The Raghubar Das government does not discriminate anyone on caste or religion. Development works are being done for everyone and the guilty will not be spared,” Deo said.

“The Opposition (parties’) governments (in other states) should also take the same lesson, particularly the Mamata Banerjee government in West Bengal, where people chanting ‘Jai Shri Ram’ are being beaten up and BJP workers are being killed,” he said.

Deo warned the Opposition not to politicise the incident and cited the example of the Ramgarh lynching incident, in which the guilty were sentenced in a “record time”. Eight people were convicted in the Ramgarh lynching case for killing a person on suspicion of ferrying beef in 2017.