Rajasthan Chief Minister Ashok Gehlot has claimed that those behind Udaipur tailor Kanhaiya Lal's murder last year were "BJP people", who had been freed from police detention days before the incident under the party's pressure.
He levelled the charge during a meeting in Jodhpur on Sunday with Congress leaders and workers ahead of the November 25 Rajasthan assembly polls. The Udaipur tailor was murdered on June 28 last year by two cleaver-wielding men who accused him of insulting Islam.
The opposition BJP in the state dismissed the allegation and attributed the tailor's brutal murder to the failure of the Congress-ruled state government to contain communal incidents.
"The accused in the Kanhaiya Lal murder case are BJP people. They had been caught by police two-three days before the incident over some altercation and the BJP leaders had got them out from police detention," Gehlot alleged.
He claimed the BJP had become "defensive" about the incident because of this.
In his recent speeches in Rajasthan, Prime Minister Narendra Modi has also targeted the Gehlot government over the incident.
Refuting the allegations, the BJP's election in-charge for western Rajasthan and Rajya Sabha member Rajendra Gehlot asked if the accused had been caught by police, why they were let off.
"It is the state government's weakness if they were let off by the police. The state government has information and complaints had been given to the police but in spite of that, such a heinous crime was allowed to take place," the BJP leader said.
The chief minister also raised doubts about the investigation conducted by the National Investigation Agency (NIA) in the murder case, saying it has been dragging its feet in the matter and nobody knows what was going on.
"We had caught the accused within two-three hours of the murder, but the NIA took over the case the same night. We do not know since then what the progress in the case has been. Had it been with SOG, there would have been some progress," he claimed.
Claiming that the pace of the investigation is purposefully slow, the chief minister attributed it to the intention of the BJP to make it a poll issue.
He also claimed that while the Congress acted with all seriousness in the matter, BJP leaders left for a conference in Hyderabad.
"The moment the incident took place, I left for Udaipur, dropping all my programmes in Jaipur. But the BJP leaders left for Hyderabad for a conference which also included their leader of the opposition," Ashok Gehlot said.
The Congress leader accused the BJP of fanning tension and said the opposition party never talks about development. The BJP's Hindutva agenda will not work in Rajasthan, Gehlot added.
"They exploited Lord Hanuman in the Karnataka election but had to bite the dust. But this time, their agenda of Hindutva will not work. Rajasthan is a model state today and only the agenda of development will work," he asserted.
Taking a dig at Prime Minister Modi's and Union Home Minister Amit Shah's visits to Rajasthan for campaigning, Gehlot said, "Now Yogi (Adityanath) is coming and everybody knows what kind of person he is."
"Modi and Shah have been continuously visiting Rajasthan. Now, Yogiji is said to be coming to Jodhpur. Just imagine what kind of person they are sending. Everybody knows their agenda," Gehlot said.
