KANPUR: Uttar Pradesh BJP MLA Shalabh Mani Tripathi kicked up a row on Saturday when he shared a video of a few alleged rioters being thrashed by police in what appeared to be a police station.
He had captioned the video ‘return gift to rioters.’
In the video, a few men can be seen pleading for mercy and trying to block the blows even as the police continued to thrash them.
Tripathi was also the former media advisor to Uttar Pradesh Chief Minister Yogi Adityanath.
While the MLA did not mention details of the police station in which the incident took place, media reports said it was a station in Saharanpur where protests were held following Friday prayers against the remarks on prophet Muhammad by BJP’s now-sacked two functionaries.
Samajwadi Party chief Akhilesh Yadav tweeted the video and condemned the police action.
“Questions must be raised on such a detention, otherwise justice will lose its power (‘iqbal’). UP is No.1 in custodial deaths. UP tops in human rights violations and UP is ahead of all in Dalit atrocities,” he wrote, tweeting the video.
When journalist Javeria Siddique pointed out that the tweet was insensitive, a defiant Tripathi asked her to “come to UP sometime.”
He also hit out at the journalists who criticised him over his tweet saying, “When the Muslim mob was rioting after the Friday prayers, they were having a lot of fun, then they neither remembered democracy nor Constitution. But today as soon as the rioters started running for cover in UP, their Muslim love, democracy, love, constitutional love all woke up.”
UP Police have so far arrested over 300 people from eight districts of the state in connection with Friday’s violence during protests against the remarks on the prophet.
In a statemen on Sunday, Additional Director General of Police (Law and Order) Prashant Kumar said, “As many as 304 persons have been arrested from eight districts of the state, and 13 cases have been registered in this connection in nine districts of the state.”
Of the 13 cases, three cases each were registered in Prayagraj and Saharanpur, and one each in Firozabad, Ambedkar Nagar, Moradabad, Hathras, Aligarh, Lakhimpur Kheri and Jalaun, the senior officer said. —PTI

Press Trust of India