The Hindu : Advani for probe into Dalit killings

Online edition of India's National Newspaper
Tuesday, Oct 22, 2002

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Advani for probe into Dalit killings

By Our Special Correspondent

NEW DELHI OCT. 21. Six days after five Dalits were killed by a mob outside a police station in the Jhajjar district of Haryana, the Deputy Prime Minister and Union Home Minister, L. K. Advani, has said that the Centre would "urge the State Government to institute an inquiry into the incident.'' Mr. Advani's statement came at the end of a speech on Valmiki's role in popularising the ethos of Rama, on the occasion of Valmiki Jayanti at his home in New Delhi.

The Vishwa Hindu Parishad held a demonstration in Jhajjar a day after the incident, demanding that no one be arrested for the crime.

The chairman of the All-India SCs/STs Organisations, Udit Raj, responding to Mr. Advani's statement, said that the Minister should address the real problem which was the atmosphere created by the Rashtriya Swayamsevak Sangh, the VHP and the Bajrang Dal, in which Dalits could be "killed with impunity." The CPI national secretary, D. Raja, said that Mr. Advani's announcement of his intention to ``urge'' the Haryana Government for a probe was meaningless. As Union Home Minister, he should have instructed Haryana to act immediately, he said.

Describing Mr. Advani's statement as a "farce,'' the Lok Jan Shakti leader, Ram Vilas Paswan, said that the leaders of the VHP and the Bajrang Dal, who had "justified" the lynching should be arrested since the act amounted to an admission of guilt. His party would continue to campaign for a judicial inquiry into the incident and a Special Court to try the guilty.

Police and the VHP have claimed that the five men who were killed and then burnt by a mob of some 2000 people were caught skinning a live cow near Dulina police station in Jhajjar district. Media reports and independent investigations, however, have found that there is no basis for the claim.

Today, a delegation led by the Rajya Sabha MP and general secretary of the All-India Agricultural Workers Union, A. Vijaya Raghavan, which met the families of the dead and the District Commissioner, Jhajjar, Mohinder Kumar, also came to the same conclusion. Mr. Vijaya Raghavan demanded that the Haryana Government set up a judicial inquiry and suspend the police personnel, including the DSP, Jhajjar, and the city magistrate who allegedly witnessed the murders.

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