Ramgarh beef lynch victim died in police custody: BJP leader

The fortnight long dharna of a former BJP MLA demanding a CBI or NIA probe into the Ramgarh beef lynching case, has entered 7th day today.

BJP leader Shankar Chaudhary claimed that the Ramgarh beef lynching victim was not lynched by cow vigilantes but he died in custody of the police inside Ramgarh Town police station.

A group of people had lynched 40-year-old Alimuddin Ansari in Bazaar Tand locality of Ramgarh town on June 29, 2017, on the suspicion that he was carrying beef in his car.

Forensic tests later confirmed that the meat he was carrying was beef, the sale of which is banned in the BJP ruled state.

On March 21, a fast track court here sentenced 11 cow vigilantes to life imprisonment in connection with the lynching of the meat trader.

The investigation carried out by the state police was partial and the police targeted only cow vigilantes, he told a press conference at the dharna site.

"It was not a lynching but was a custodial death," Chaudhary alleged.

The former Ramgarh MLA claimed that Ansari had been handed over to the police by people after capturing him with 'beef' and policemen took him to custody and he died in the police station.

"In an attempt to hide the custodial death, the cow vigilantes were falsely implicated in the case," Chaudhary claimed demanding that only a probe by the CBI or the NIA could unearth the truth behind the death of Ansari.

Chaudhary who has been on dharna from April 10 also called Ramgarh bandh on May 1 to press for his demand.