Dadri lynching: UP government announces Rs 10 lakh compensation

The police have arrested eight people on Wednesday and are on the lookout for two more after villagers allegedly beat a Muslim farmer in Dadri town to death and severely injured his son upon hearing rumours that the family was eating beef.

Amid mounting tension over lynching of a 50-year-old man following rumours that he and his family had eaten beef, Union Minister Mahesh Sharma today descibed the incident as “an accident” even as a blame game erupted between BJP and ruling SP over it.

Eyewitnesses and relatives said an announcement was made at a local temple that a cow has been slaughtered here, following which a large number of people attacked the victims and their family. “He was dragged outside the house, obviously neighbours were involved”, he said. We tried to reason with them that we have goat meat and not cow meat but the mob turned wild and they dragged both of them away. It was goat’s meet.

Pawan Sisodia, another villager, said, “There is nothing wrong with what happened”. “The entire incident took place because of alleged cow slaughter”.

UP CM Akhilesh Yadav has announced an ex-gratia compensation of Rs 10 lakh to the family of the victim. Chief Minister Akhilseh Yadav has also instructed the District Magistrate and Senior Superintendent of Police, Noida to provide full protection to the family of the victim. They said the incident could have been averted had the government acted on time in the matter. “People will certainly get furious if cow is slaughtered in their village”, Nagar said.

The report also quotes Singh as saying that “peace committees to restore communal harmony” have been assembled. “Nobody should take law into his hands”, Sharma said.

Reacting to SP leader’s charge, BJP MP Yogi Adityanath said the UP government was responsible for “jungle-raj” in the state. Meanwhile, officials have sent the meat samples for a forensic test.

A few Muslim families have already fled the village while the rest fear a rerun of the September 2013 riots in Muzaffarnagar in which 50,000 people were displaced and over 60 killed after an altercation had snowballed into full-blown violence. We pleaded with them to leave him but they did not listen. “The incident was not a conspiracy”, he said, adding that a sudden rush of blood could have precipitated the situation.