BJP too demands judicial probe into Varanasi violence

VARANASI: Following the line of Congress, Bharatiya Janata Party has also demanded a judicial probe into the violence outbreak in Varanasi during Anyaya Pratikar Yatra on October 5. To show their solidarity to seers and saints, the BJP men are also ready for court arrest if innocent seers are arrested. The BJP accused police of implicating innocent people on the direction of the state government.
In a joint press conference on Thursday, MLC Laxman Acharya, and MLAs Jyotsana Srivastava and Ravindra Jaiswal said that the BJP will not tolerate humiliation of seers in any circumstances, and the party will go to any extent to save their dignity.“We are ready for court arrest if seers implicated in false criminal cases will be arrested,” said Jaiswal adding that the party demands judicial enquiry of the incident and stern action against the guilty persons.
They alleged that criminal cases were also lodged against those who were not present in the scene. It showed that the police initiated action against those people who were in the list prepared by local Samajwadi Party leaders, they alleged and added that the local administration acted on the whim of state government to foil the seers’ march.
They also accused Congress of making unnecessary and baseless allegations on BJP and Prime Minister Narendra Modi just to gain political mileage. Jaiswal said that all the local MLAs of BJP were the part of yatra that started from Town hall ground. The Congress leaders like Rajesh Pati Tripathi, Lalitesh Pati Tripathi, former MP Rajesh Mishra and others were also present there, he said adding, “But all of us with Swami Avimukteshwaranand Saraswati were far away from the place where violence broke out”.
“It is the duty of police to identify real trouble mongers and book them instead of harassing innocent people,” said Jaiswal and added that police booked seers including Swami Avimukteshwaranand, Mahanth Balak Das and Mahanth Santosh Das.
The violence broke out at Godowlia crossing on October 5 in which several vehicles were damaged and a number of people including police and media persons sustained injuries. The district administration also imposed curfew in four police station areas for two hours. So far police arrested 56 people including Congress MLA Ajay Rai, and lodged FIR against 106 identified and 1000 unidentified people.