Opposition slams BJP over murder-accused appointment as office bearer in organisation with top party leaders

BJP was left red-faced after a man, who was an accused in the killing of a senior Uttar Pradesh police officer, was appointed general secretary of an organisation, which had several top saffron party leaders as its patron.

Subodh Kumar Singh, the in-charge of Syana police station in the state's Bulandshahar district, about 500 kilometres from here, had been killed by a frenzied mob, consisting mainly of saffron activists, in a clash in December 2018 following the recovery of animal bones in the area. A Bajarang Dal (BD) office-bearer, a Vishwa Hindu Parishad (VHP) worker and a BJP leader were among 88 people booked in the killing.

The accused, identified as Shikhar Agarwal, who was made general secretary of Bulandshahar district unit of PM Jankalyankari Jagrukta Abhiyan (PMJJA), was handed over the appointment letter by the district BJP president Anil Sisodiya at a function a few days back.

The PMJJA claims to be engaged in publicising the various welfare schemes launched by Prime Minister Narendra Modi across the country. Its letter pad showed top BJP leaders, including union ministers Dharmendra Pradhan, Ramesh Pokhariyal, Narendra Tomar and Ashwini Chaubey as patrons.

It later turned out that Agarwal was also a member of the BJP.

As the pictures of Agarwal being handed over the appointment letter by Sisodiya went viral on the social networking sites, an embarrassed BJP tried to wriggle out of the situation by claiming that PMJJA had nothing to do with the party.

Samajwadi Party (SP) president Akhilesh Yadav slammed the BJP for 'patronising' those involved in the killing of the cop and said that it would encourage the criminals.

Congress general secretary Priyanka Gandhi Vadra also launched a scathing attack on the BJP for making an alleged cop killer an office-bearer in an organisation associated with it.

Earlier, the main accused and saffron leaders were garlanded and hailed as 'gau rakshaks' (cow protectors) by saffron activists upon their release from Bulandshahar district jail after being enlarged on bail by the Allahabad High Court.