New Delhi: The decision of the Navnirman Sena in Uttar Pradesh to offer a Lok Sabha ticket Shambhulal Regar, who is accused of hacking and burning Muslim labourer Mohammad Afrazul to death, has drawn strong opposition from the victim’s family, the Indian Express reported.
The Navnirman Sena is UP-based political organisation, that has in the past, been in the news for vandalising statues of former chief minister Mayawati. The Navnirman Sena’s decision to field Regar from Agra from the seat reserved for Scheduled Castes was recently announced by the party’s national president Amit Jani.
“We want nothing but strong punishment for him. He has taken everything away from us and we want justice to prevail. No one should field a murderer like him from any seat. If he gets an election ticket, he will evade punishment and there will be chances that he might not get convicted at all. We don’t want that to happen,” Afrazul’s wife Gul Bahar Bibi told the Indian Express.
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In December 2017, Mohammad Afrazul, a migrant worker from Malda, West Bengal, was hacked with a cleaver and then set on fire by Regar in Rajsamand, Rajasthan, reportedly after the latter suspected that Afrazul was in a relationship with a Hindu woman. The act was filmed and the videos of the murder as well as Regar justifying it went viral on social media.
Shambhulal Regar has been in a Jodhpur jail since the incident. However, Amit Jani is reportedly confident that Regar will win the elections.
“It is shocking for us. How can any political party support him and offer him a ticket to contest elections? I think Prime Minister Narendra Modi and chief minister Mamata Banerjee should intervene in the matter. We want our legal system to intervene to stop such people from contesting elections,” Bibi told News18.