Mathura: Unravelling the mystery behind the disappearance of alleged mastermind of Mathura violence Ram Vriksha Yadav, UP Police on Saturday confirmed that he died in the violence at Jawahar Bagh.
Director General of Uttar Pradesh Police Javeed Ahmad confirmed that his body has been identified by associates and the family has been intimated for final confirmation.
Javed Ahmed had earlier told India TV Yadav may be among those who were killed in arson during the incident. He, however, said that efforts are on to establish the identities of 11 burnt bodies which were recovered from the park premises.
Javed said that he will confirm the details about Yadav’s death only after the DNA tests of all the eleven dead bodies are done.
“We are yet to ascertain the exact details. But there are unconfirmed reports available that he may be among the people who were charred to death. But right now I can’t confirm this report,” he said.
Javed’s remark came in the backdrop of reports that a massive manhunt is underway to trace Yadav. Police had earlier said that Yadav and the security officer of the group Chandan Gaur managed to flee along with thousands of supporters.
Police has so far arrested over 300 members of the group. As many as 24 people, including two policemen SP City Mukul Dwivedi and Station Officer of Farah police station Santosh Yadav, were killed in Thursday's clash between the police and members of Swadhin Bharat Vidhik Satyagrah.
The police is also suspecting that there was some imprint of Naxals.
"This is not an ordinary religious extremism. We are probing the angle that there could be some imprint of Naxals here as some of the leaders were from Left wing terror-hit Chhattisgarh and Ghazipur," C Mishra, the Inspector General of Mathura zone, said.
Meanwhile, it has been reported that Yadav, originally a farmer, was getting a monthly pension of Rs 15,000 from the state government as ‘Loktantra Rakshak Senani’.
The Samajwadi Party government gives the pension to people arrested under Maintenance of Internal Security Act (MISA) during the Emergency years, and the amount was recently raised by Rs 5,000.
Yadav belongs to Raipur Baghpur village under the Mardah police station area in Ghazipur. He is known as a reserved person, who is short-tempered.
He had moved to Mathura with his family some three years ago, police said, adding that they are also planning to book Yadav under sedition charges. The Ghazipur district administration has now sought a report from their Mathura district counterparts to verify Yadav’s identity.
