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Udaipur hate crime: SIT to probe links of killers with radical elements, says CM
The Centre on Wednesday separately directed the National Investigation Agency to take over the probe into the murder and “thoroughly investigate” the involvement of any organisation or international linkages
Rajasthan chief minister Ashok Gehlot on Wednesday said the links of the killers of a tailor in Udaipur with radical elements in India and abroad will be probed and a Special Investigation Team (SIT) has accordingly been constituted to probe the hate crime. He said the SIT has started its work.
“We are taking the incident very seriously. This is not a minor issue and it could not have happened until there was a link with radical elements [in India and abroad]. This is what the [past] experience [suggests]. And we have started an investigation [accordingly],” said Gehlot, who cancelled his two-day Jodhpur visit and returned to Jaipur.
Gehlot held a meeting to review the law-and-order situation in the state.
Kanhaiya Lal, 47, the tailor, was killed days after he put out a message supporting suspended Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) spokesperson Nupur Sharma over her derogatory comments about Prophet Mohammed. The hate crime sparked protests and prompted the suspension of Internet services in Rajasthan.
The two Muslim men, who hacked Lal to death, filmed the murder on their phones, and later issued a threat to Prime Minister Narendra Modi while posing with the knives used in the killing.
The Centre on Wednesday separately directed the National Investigation Agency to take over the probe into the murder and “thoroughly investigate” the involvement of any organisation or international linkages.
READ: NIA to take over Udaipur killing probe, international links to be investigated
BJP leader Gulab Chand Kataria said Lal feared for his life and asked for police protection. “...had they given him timely protection, his life could have been saved.” He referred to the video of the murder and the killers and said such people were trying to spread “Talibani mindset.”
Kataria called for a probe into whether the killers were part of a gang and from where it is working from to disturb peace across the country. “Coordinated and planned efforts are being made to disturb peace...”
