Dadri lynching case: District administration holds meeting with village heads to stop rumours

Bishada: The district administration at Gautam Budh Nagar on Monday held meeting with the village head of Bishada and other nearby villages and asked them to cooperate to put a check on rumours, especially over carcasses which are believed to led to lynching of a man.

"In today's meeting we impressed upon the village heads the need to putting an end to such rumours, especially the ones over carcasses," said Nagendra Prasad Singh, District Magistrate of Gautam Budh Nagar.

The objective of these meetings is to stop rumours and to instill confidence and a sense of security among the minorities.

Rumours are also suspected to have caused tensions in neighbouring villages in the past two days.

Today, there was tension reported at Kudikheda village when a man, identified as Manok Kumar, was carrying his dead calf for disposal and a youth from neighbouring village Bambabad, waylaid him and started questioning him about the calf.

He accused Kumar of trying to sell of the calf to a slaughter house and allegedly threatened him. In no time, a large crowd gathered there and a police team had to be rushed. "Later, a case was registered, based on a complaint by Kumar and the youth was arrested under relevant sections of the law," said Kiran S, Senior Superintendent of Police (Gautam Budh Nagar).

Similar tension was reported yesterday at neighbouring village Chithara where three youths, who were in an inebriated state, claimed to have seen carcasses and raised an alarm alleging cow slaughter. "The incident led to tension after a police team was rushed there and a peace meeting had to be arranged immediately," Kiran S added.

On October 2, Sartaj, son of the 50-year-old man who was lynched to death at Bishada over rumours of cow slaughter, had appealed to the media to be more sensitive in covering the case. Sartaj, who is an Indian Air Force personnel, also requested for his family be shifted to Chennai.

A senior revenue official said that Indian Air Force is in constant touch with the concerned district magistrate.

The village head of Bishada village Sanjeev Rana today denied any conspiracy behind the lynching of Iqlakh by a mob and instead blamed rumours and photographs of carcasses circulated through social media for the incident.

A rumour, based on photographs of carcasses, spread in the night in which Iqhlaq was lynched to death and his son, Danish (22), was severely injured at Bishada village in Dadri, Rana claimed.