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.
“We went there to take part in the election Rath Yatra. Since the Rath was late, our people were shouting slogans as the BJP government has not yet been able to take care of the fishermen, contrary to the promises made before the elections. Even our people were arrested. If we were shouting slogans, it was for our demands.”Arjun Kashyap, General Secretary, Rashtriya Nishad Party
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.
“I got to know about the stone pelting later. If there were stones being thrown, even our people might have retaliated. This is all on BJP workers.’
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.
“Mr. Vats, from what i have heard was returning from duty when he got hurt. Otherwise many from the police force deployed would have also gotten hurt, had there been an attack on the police.”
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.
Head Constable Vats (48), from Karimuddinpur police station, was hit on the head by a stone when he went to end a traffic jam caused by the protests.
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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