'Lust for money, illegal politics' led to Mathura violence: Amitabh Thakur

IPS officer Thakur on Monday launched a tirade against Uttar Pradesh PWD minister Shivpal Singh Yadav

Tagging 'lust for money and illegal political cloud' as the reason behind the recent Mathura violence, IPS officer Amitabh Thakur on Monday launched a tirade against Uttar Pradesh PWD minister Shivpal Singh Yadav and alleged that he had given illegal protection to the culprits and had put an improper pressure on the local administration.

"To me, Mathura is an incident resulted only because of lust for money and illegal political cloud," Mathur told ANI.

"I personally believe that Shivpal Singh Yadav is individually and personally responsible for the entire episode because if he had not given illegal protection to the culprits and had not put an improper pressure on the local administration, this incident would have never happened," he added.

BJP president Amit Shah on Saturday asked Samajwadi Party chief Mulayam Singh Yadav to demand the resignation of his younger brother Shivpal Singh Yadav, squarely holding him responsible for the Mathura violence.

"If even a little bit of self-respect is left in Netaji (Mulayam), he should get minister Shivpal Yadav to resign immediately," Shah said in Kanpur.

Addressing a booth-level in-charge meet of Kanpur and Bundelkhand regions, he said: "An SP is killed in broad daylight. An SHO is killed. More than 200 people opened fire on police. But a minister (Shivpal) sitting in the secretariat patronises them and does not allow police to retaliate."

Shivpal, however, hit back at the BJP president and suggested him to follow positive, ideological and development oriented politics instead of misleading the people of the state.

"He has become short of issues due to better working of SP government and, therefore, he is giving baseless statements," he said.

Violence had erupted in Mathura on June 2 during an operation to evict members of a religious group, Azad Bharat Vidhik Vaicharik Kranti Satyagrahi, from government land.

The deadly clash between police and a cult group had claimed 25 lives and left hundreds other injured.