Arjun Kashyap, the general secretary of the Rashtriya Nishad Party and the main accused in the Ghazipur mob violence that left a policeman dead, on Thursday, 3 January, blamed the BJP for the violence.
Kashyap said that his people wanted to attend the election Rath Yatra, after the Prime Minister attended an event in the city. He said that when one BJP member came, BJP workers started hurling abuses, thrashed many of his workers and started pelting stones.
"All of this is done by the BJP and this is a conspiracy by them to frame us,” he said.
Kashyap further said that he has been made the prime accused wrongly, saying that the stone pelting was totally from the BJP’s side and that he had left the spot before the policeman was hurt as his car was damaged and he was hurt.
He also said that the police was not attacked because had that been the case, many would have got hurt as a lot of force was deployed.
Police head constable Suresh Vats was killed in Ghazipur on Saturday, 29 December, when protesters hurled stones at vehicles returning from the venue of a meeting addressed by Prime Minister Narendra Modi.
Police arrested 27 people in connection with the violence on Sunday, 31 December 2018. 32 people were named in the FIR filed by the UP police.
“Till now, 32 people have been named in the FIR... 70-80 unnamed people are also mentioned in the FIR,” MP Pathak, CO City, Ghazipur said.
Meanwhile, Superintendent of Police (Ghazipur) Yashveer Singh said the protesters were workers from the Rashtriya Nishad Party, who were prevented by police from going to the venue.
(With inputs from ANI)
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