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

Udaipur, Nov 4: 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.
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 ours after the incident. (PTI)