In Udaipur, Kanhaiya Lal murder a poll issue, family demands death penalty for culprits

Udaipur: Last year after his father was hacked to death for allegedly supporting a social media post against Islam, Yash Sahu had pledged to walk barefoot, not cut his hair and not immerse ashes till the culprits are hanged.

'I will stay firm on my pledge,' said 21-year-old Sahu, recalling the brutal killing of Kanhaiya Lal, a tailor, by two cleaver wielding men at his shop in the busy Hathipole area, an incident that is once again the matter of the moment as Rajasthan goes to polls on November 25.

Before being killed on June 28 last year, he was being threatened for supporting the post by BJP leader Nupur Sharma, Lal's family members said at their house in Govardhan Vilas, a quaint residential colony on the fringes of the city.

'Our lives have completely changed. Politicians come to us, one blames the other. We do not want politics (over the issue) but, certainly, we want the parties to take a firm stand on our matter in order to get the culprits death penalty,' said Lal's elder son Sahu.

The June 28 killing is one of the issues the BJP is targeting the Congress -- the party in power in Rajasthan -- during its campaigns in Udaipur. The ruling party, however, has claimed that the accused were linked to the BJP. 'Certainly the Kanhaiya Lal murder case will have its impact in the elections. There is anger among the people after the gruesome incident,' BJP's Udaipur assembly constituency candidate Tara Chand Jain said.

'It was a complete failure of the Congress government. Lal's family had informed police about threat to his life but no action was taken. This laxity led to the incident... it tarnished the image of the city. It was also linked to Pakistan, so how can people forget such a big incident,' he said.

Jain also added that the youth of the state has suffered because of government recruitment question paper leaks.

Udaipur, which is one of the eight assembly seats in Udaipur district, fell vacant after sitting MLA and BJP leader Gulab Chand Kataria was appointed the governor of Assam.

Congress' candidate Gourav Vallabh alleged that the accused in the Lal murder case were members of the BJP. 'There are photographs of them with BJP leaders... one of the leaders is the 'mahamahim of Assam' (governor),' he claimed.

'The accused were BJP members. The Rajasthan Police had caught them, then why did the NIA (National Investigation Agency) hurriedly take over the case? Amit Shah (Union home minister and senior BJP leader) should tell the people why this was done and to save whom,' Vallabh said.

He also raised the 2020 Hathras rape-murder case and the 2020 Lakhimpur Kheri case, in which farmers were run over by a vehicle during a protest, in Uttar Pradesh.

Round the clock police protection was provided to Lal's family after the incident and both his sons were assigned personal security officers and given government jobs by the Ashok Ghelot dispensation in Rajasthan.

The case should be taken to a conclusion, said Lal's wife Jasoda, alleging that 'the NIA does not tell us about the developments in court and we only get to know from news'.

Riyaz Attari and Gause Mohammad are accused of killing Lal and also shooting a video of the crime and circulating it on social media. They were caught in Rajsamand district a few hours after the incident. Subsequently, the case was taken over by the NIA, and at present, eight accused, including Attari and Gause, are in judicial custody.  Members of the Muslim community in Udaipur, however, said that the community had nothing to do with the incident and the matter should not be politicised.  'The incident was unfortunate and the community had condemned it. Politics should not be done on such issues and the entire community should not be linked to the case,' religious leader Mufti Shakirul Quadri said.  Shatrughan, a trader in the Mandi area of the city, said, 'Traders were in fear after Lal's killing. Some also got threats. We want a safe environment and that can be done when a government functions like the Yogi government (Uttar Pradesh Chief Minister and senior BJP leader Yogi Adityanath).' Besides raising the Lal murder case issue, political parties are promising better cleanliness, sanitation, roads, drainage and traffic management in the Lake City of Udaipur that sees a high footfall of tourists. The Udaipur assembly constituency has been a BJP bastion for the last two decades with Kataria winning it four consecutive times since 2003. The six-time MLA, who was the leader of the opposition in the Rajasthan assembly, was appointed Assam governor in February.

'No one can match the stature of Gulab Chand Kataria, but the BJP is a cadre-based party and all are working together to win the seat again,' BJP Udaipur district president Ravindra Srimali said.

He added that there is scope for improvement in civic infrastructure in the city in view of it being a popular tourist destination. 'With increasing number of tourists, there is some work to be done to improve infrastructure, and it will be done by the BJP, which will win the Rajasthan polls and form government,” Srimali said.

On the paper leak issue, he said, 'Youths are looking at the BJP to secure their future. Several paper leaks happened in the Congress' rule.' 'RPSC (Rajasthan Public Service Commission) member Babu Lal Katara was arrested and Congress leaders from the Udaipur division are directly involved in paper leaks,' the BJP leader alleged.

BJP candidate Jain is a councillor in the Udaipur Municipal Corporation. After his name was declared, Deputy Mayor Paras Singhvi had protested. However, Jain said that things have been settled and Singhvi supports him.

Locals said that Kataria was instrumental in strengthening the BJP in the entire Udaipur division.

Congress candidate Vallabh, a national spokesperson of the party, had started preparing for the polls six months ago. The BJP had said he is an outsider and has no connect with the local people.

'He has no standing in the constituency because he is an outsider. People do not accept outsiders,” Jain said.

Vallabh said that people are fed with BJP representatives and now want a change. 'People, including the youth, have faith in me that I can fulfil their aspirations because the Congress is contesting elections on the issue of development, schemes and programmes launched by its government for the welfare of people,' he said.

While the Udaipur seat fell vacant, the BJP has sitting MLAs in Gogunda (Pratap Lal Bheel Gameti), Jhalol (Babu Lal), Mawli (Dharmnarayan Joshi), Salumbar (Amrit Lal Meena) and Udaipur Rural (Phool Singh Meena). The Congress has MLAs is two seats -- Vallabhnagar (Preeti Gajendra Shaktawat) and Khairwada (Dayaram Parmar). Salumbar is now a separate district.