'Scared' U'khnd Govt. playing politics over Shaktiman: BJP

The Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) on Tuesday accused the Congress-led Uttarakhand Government of playing politics over 'Shakitman' and said it is scared of a CBI probe in the death of the slain police horse.

Taking a jibe at Chief Minister Harish Rawat, BJP MP Ganesh Joshi, who had allegedly attacked Shaktiman, told ANI that the statue of the horse was removed from the Police Lines with the instruction of some astrologer.

"When an astrologer told you that you lost ten MLAs when you tried to do politics over a horse...this time if you do so, the Congress Party will sink...so, you removed the statue. The Chief Minister is scared of the CBI...but I am not. There must be a CBI probe in this matter as to how he got injured, why his leg was amputated," he said.

Joshi said Rawat had earlier announced a 'Shaktiman Chowk', but now with the statue being removed, he will be best person to answer on it.

"The Chief Minister had passed this in the Cabinet...so you could have asked this question to him. He had announced that this chowk would be named as 'Shaktiman chowk' and a statue would be installed. The statue vanished within a fortnight with his order. The Chief Minister would have been able to give you a better answer," he added.

He further said more than 80 percent of the people on social media opposed the installation of the statue of the police horse.

"Many police died while saving many Amaranth Yatra pilgrims. They (people on social media) wanted a war memorial in memory of the slain police officers. He didn't do it. In order to do politics, you installed a statue," he added.

Following backlash on the social media over 'Shaktiman' being given more importance than the cops who lost their lives, the Uttarakhand Government has removed the statue of the police horse installed at the Police Lines.

Chief Minister Harish Rawat was supposed to inaugurate the 'Shaktiman Park' named after the police horse, who was critically maimed in a Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) rally carried out by MP Ganesh Joshi earlier on March 14.

However, Rawat skipped the inaugural ceremony yesterday and left the venue soon after his visit.

Shaktiman was a well-trained 13-year-old horse of the Uttarakhand Mounted Police.

When the horse was deployed by the police during a BJP rally, Joshi had allegedly attacked the horse's leg with a baton, critically injuring the animal.

The outrage over this incident of gross animal abuse grew so large that Joshi was even briefly arrested.

The white-coloured Kathiawari horse succumbed to its injuries on April 20.