A 59-year-old Muslim man was allegedly beaten to death by a group of people in Buladshahr’s Sohi village on Tuesday on suspicion that he aided his relative elope with a Hindu girl.
The deceased, identified as Ghulam Mohammad, was the neighbour of Yusuf (22), who has been on the run for the last week.
Ghulam’s family members have alleged that members of Hindu Yuva Vahini (HYV) – a pro-Hindutva outfit founded by Yogi Adityanath in 2002 – are behind the incident.
“Ghulam’s son Yaseen has alleged that while he was walking towards their orchard to meet his father, he saw Gavendra Singh — a resident of their village — and six others leaving the orchard on motorcycles… He claimed that when he entered the orchard, he found his father lying injured. He raised an alarm and locals rushed Ghulam to the hospital, where doctors declared him brought dead on arrival,” Shikarpur police Circle Officer Vijay Prakash was quoted by The Indian Express as saying.
Later, Ghulam’s family lodged an FIR with the police, in which they named Gavendra Singh, along with 4-5 unidentified persons belonging to the HYV, alleging that they had murdered him.
On the other hand, Vivek Singh, the Meerut range in-charge of HYV, denied that members of his outfit were involved.
According to Additional District Magistrate Arvind Kumar Mishra, 19-year-old Yusuf of Sohi village had allegedly eloped with a Hindu girl of Fazalpur village on April 27.
The girl’s family had lodged a case of kidnapping against Yusuf at the Pahasu police station.
Suspecting that Ghulam had helped Yusuf, the culprits reached his house on Tuesday afternoon, dragged him to a secluded spot and allegedly beat him to death.
Last month, members of the HYV barged into a house in Meerut and allegedly roughed up a Muslim man and a woman belonging to another faith after they were found together.
Local residents and activist from the right-wing outfit handed over the couple to the police after beating them.
The incident comes on the heels of allegations of high-handedness by UP Police's anti-Romeo squad that was formed to check eve teasing after BJP government came to power in the state.
CM Yogi Adityanath had recently instructed police not to harass "innocent" couples after some unsavoury incidents involving anti-Romeo squads.
UP CM Yogi Adityanath on Saturday warned the workers of Hindu Yuva Vahini to maintain a decent behaviour in whatever work they do, according to a report published in The Indian Express.
UP CM asked the group, that has been founded by him, not to misuse the colour saffron as the image of the outfit or the BJP would suffer.
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