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Mathura double-murder: UP govt assurances fail to placate deceased jewellers’ kin
Jewellers Megh and Vikas Agarwal were shot dead at the city’s Holi Gate area on Monday. No arrests have been made so far.
When energy minister Shrikant Sharma and director general of police (DGP) Sulkhan Singh visited the relatives of two murdered jewellers in Mathura on Wednesday, they found that calming frayed tempers with mere assurances of “strict action” was no easy task.
Megh and Vikas Agarwal were shot dead at the city’s Holi Gate area on Monday. No arrests have been made so far.
Sharma told grieving relatives and mediapersons that the Yogi Adityanath government needed time to restore the state’s law-and-order situation, which has “plummeted” in the last 15 years. Describing the Mathura double-murder as unfortunate, he said: “We are with the family members (of the jewellers) in this moment of grief. Measures will be taken to ensure that such incidents do not recur. Better security arrangements will be made, and the DGP has ordered increased patrolling.”
Swift action will be taken against the culprits, Sharma promised, adding that restoring the “shattered law-and-order inherited by the new regime” was chief minister Yogi Adityanath’s top priority.
The jewellers’ kin, however, were far from impressed.
“Mere promises about improving the state’s law-and-order situation will not bring our loved ones back,” said a grieving relative. Another claimed though they had voted the BJP to power, it was under their regime that they lost everything.
While some relatives questioned the police’s absence at the time of the incident, others recalled how the injured “had to be taken to the hospital on scooters” for lack of emergency medical assistance.
Sharma and Singh first visited 32-year-old Megh’s family at their Dampier Nagar residence. He is survived by his widow, Kirti, and a three-year-old son.
Vikas leaves behind his widow, Suhani, and three children. His parents, Mohan Lal and Kusumlata, are yet to come to terms with the murder.
The energy minister also dropped by Nayati Hospital to meet Vikas’ brother, Mayank, who was injured in the shooting.
