New Delhi: The All India Kisan Sabha (AIKS) on Saturday demanded a stringent law against lynching and hate crime, following a meeting with families of three cattle transporters who were killed after allegedly being chased by a mob in Chhattisgarh last month.
It was a “planned killing”, the AIKS said in a statement issued after a delegation comprising its and the All India Agricultural Workers Union (AIAWU) members met the victims’ families on Friday.
The delegation met the families of Tehsim Qureshi in Banat town, and Chand Mian and Saddam Qureshi in Lakhnauti village of Uttar Pradesh and handed over cheques of Rs 1 lakh each, it said.
The cattle transporters were killed on June 7 near the Mahanadi bridge along the Mahasamund-Raipur border of Chhattisgarh.
“The planned murders took place just three days after the declaration of the results of the Lok Sabha elections on June 4 in which Narendra Modi and the BJP-NDA (National Democratic Alliance) came to power for the third time, although with a much-reduced majority. This has been followed by similar attacks on Muslims by Sangh Parivar criminals in several states,” the AIKS said.
The delegation included Rajya Sabha MP and AIAWU treasurer V Sivadasan, AIKS president Ashok Dhawale and general secretary Vijoo Krishnan, among others.
They were accompanied by AIKS leaders from Uttar Pradesh.
“So far, no government officials have visited the family of Tehsim Qureshi while the subdivisional magistrate had visited the two families in Lakhnauti village. No compensation or treatment expenditure was provided to these families by either the state government of Chhattisgarh or Uttar Pradesh, both led by the BJP,” the statement said.
The AIKS demanded a compensation of Rs 1 crore for each family and a permanent job to one kin of each victim by the Chhattisgarh government.
Alleging that it was a planned attack, the AIKS said, “The Chhattisgarh incident happened between at 2-3 am on June 7 when a gang of 11-12 people followed the truck loaded with cattle — all buffaloes, not a single cow — and stopped the truck at the Mahanadi bridge and attacked the workers. It is a case of premeditated murder and hate crime and not mob lynching.”
It said the state police registered an FIR under sections 304 and 307 of the Indian Penal Code for attempt to murder and culpable homicide attracting punishment of either description for a term which may extend to two years, or with a fine or with both.
However, Section 302 that deals with murder was not included, it added.
“This reveals the rabidly communal bias of the Chhattisgarh Police. Among the four belatedly arrested in this case is Raja Agrawal, who is district propaganda chief of the BJYM (Bharatiya Janata Yuva Morcha),” it said.
The AIKS also demanded a judicial inquiry and called for a law to check hate crime.
“Prime Minister Narendra Modi and Home Minister Amit Shah are directly responsible for the current wave of widespread increase of hate crimes against Muslims all over India in the post-poll scenario. The RSS (Rashtriya Swayamsevak Sangh) and its outfits constantly instigate hatred against the minorities,” the farmers’ organisation said.
“The AIKS strongly demands that the NDA Union government and Parliament enact a stringent law against mob lynching and hate crimes, establish fast track courts to expedite the trial and conviction of the lawbreakers, and protect the interests of cattle farmers, traders and workers in the cattle trade and meat industry,” it added.
The organisation also called upon all its village and tehsil units to observe July 24 as a protest day against “RSS-driven hate crimes against cattle farmers and cattle transport workers”.
