The men who killed a tailor in Udaipur last year were linked to the Bharatiya Janata Party, Rajasthan Chief Minister Ashok Gehlot said on Sunday.
The tailor, Kanhaiya Lal, was killed on 28 June last year for sharing a derogatory social media post in support of BJP spokesperson Nupur Sharma. She had made derogatory remarks about Prophet Muhammad during a television debate a month before.
Two men named Riyaz Akhtari and Ghouse Mohammad had posted a video of the killing online on June 28. They were arrested hours later.
If the state police’s Special Operations Group had handled the case instead of the National Investigation Agency, the matter would have reached a logical conclusion, Gehlot said.
The Rajasthan Police had filed the initial case after Lal’s killing. However, the National Investigation Agency subsequently took over the matter and registered a separate case on June 29 last year.
“No one knows what action the NIA has taken. If our SOG had pursued the case, the culprits would have been brought to justice by now,” Gehlot told reporters in Jodhpur on Sunday.
Gehlot said that as soon as he heard about the killing, he had cancelled all his scheduled events and left for Udaipur.
“However, several top leaders of the BJP chose to attend an event in Hyderabad even after learning of the Udaipur incident,” he claimed.
Gehlot’s statement came days ahead of Assembly elections in Rajasthan, which are slated to be held on November 25.
Last month, Prime Minister Narendra Modi had referred to the killing, and alleged that the Congress was concerned about its vote bank even in the backdrop of the murder.
