Even if he (Akhlaq) had beef in house, it was wrong to kill him: Sanjeev Balyan

It’s an unfortunate incident and strict action should be taken against the culprits.

According to you, what is the real story in Dadri?

Let me tell you one thing. In UP, this meat business has become quite big. Even though slaughtering houses are banned, the meat business is growing fast. There is no police action. In fact, the police are often hand in glove (with the perpetrators). The Samajwadi Party puts pressure on the police to not take action. Police get money per truck. This corruption is well known. Only this month, a boy caught a few people who were engaged in cow slaughtering. The police didn’t take any action; instead they got the boy arrested. Do you know a sub-inspector was killed in Saharanpur recently by the trailer truck of a meat-owner? Did you report it? Do you know about it?

BJP MLA Sangeet Som visited Dadri and spoke of giving a “befitting reply”. Isn’t the incident being politicised?

Who says it is political? It is not a political issue. It should not be made one. Whenever anyone dies, we feel the pain. What happened in Dadri is wrong.

Why did Som go there?

He went in his personal capacity, not on behalf of the party. He did not take any permission from the party. I called up Mahesh Sharma, who is MP from the area. He did not know about Som’s visit. The party has nothing to do with his visit to Dadri.

Do you condemn the Dadri incident?

Yes. Even if he had beef in his house, it was wrong to kill him. Any killing is wrong.

There is talk that such incidents are being whipped up just to influence the Bihar election.

We should not give it a communal colour.

Eight of those arrested are related to a BJP leader. What do you have to say to that?

You will find BJP and SP men in every village. SP men are behind 90 per cent of the crimes in UP. You can’t blame the party for what these people do.