Alwar Lynching: BJP MLA Gyan Dev Ahuja says cow slaughter bigger crime than terrorism

Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) MLA from Rajasthan's Alwar, where lynching of a Muslim man over suspicion of cow slaughter created a huge outrage, on Monday said that cow slaughtering is a bigger crime than terrorism. 

Gyan Dev Ahuja, who had earlier demanded the release of men arrested for the alleged lynching of Rakbar alias Akbar Khan, said cows are treated as mothers in India and any 'misbehaviour' with them cannot be tolerated.

The BJP MLA said terrorists kill 2-5 people, but cow slaughtering hurts sentiments of several thousand and even lakhs of people.

Speaking to reporters at the BJP headquarters in Jaipur, the legislator said cow slaughtering will incite people and hurt their sentiments, which will lead to some incidents.

"Court should accept this. How should such incidents be stopped?" he said.

Ahuja said India is a country which respects mother and "Geeta, Dharti (land), cow, Ganga, Tulsi and a birth giver" are treated as mother in the country.

He said any 'misbehaviour' or 'goondaism' with the mother is not tolerated in this country and therefore it is a bigger crime than terrorism.

Ahuja had earlier accused the local police for the alleged lynching of 28-year Aakbar who died after being thrashed by a cow vigilante group in the MLA's constituency on the intervening night of 20-21 July. He also demanded release of three persons arrested for the lynching.

While it was alleged by his rivals that the people involved in the Akbar case were his men, Ahuja had blamed the local police for the incident and had demanded a judicial inquiry or a CBI probe into the case to ensure unbiased investigation.

Ahuja made the demand after state Home Minister Gulabchand Kataria ordered a judicial inquiry considering Akbar's demise a case of 'custodial death'.

Akbar and another man, Aslam, were taking two cows from Alwar to their village in Haryana through a forest area when a group of people spotted them and caught Akbar. He was badly beaten while Aslam managed to escape, as per the police.

The victim was taken to the community health centre in Ramgarh by the police after an alleged delay of nearly two and a half hours and he was declared brought dead at the hospital. 

The Meo community has demanded the arrest of Ahuja, accusing him of being involved in a conspiracy of the lynching of Akbar. The demand was made on Sunday at a Meo community's mahapanchayat in the victim's village in Haryana's Nuh district, which is close to the Rajasthan border, said Alwar's Mev Panchayat leader Sher Mohammad.

(With PTI inputs)