According to a Cobrapost exclusive, the investigating officer in the Akhlaq case, Subodh Kumar Singh had told the Cobrapost that he was pressurized into changing the meat sample by the Akhilesh govt. UP Police inspector Subodh Kumar Singh was killed on December 3 in Bulandshahr while he was trying to control mob violence after carcasses of 25 cows were found in the forests near a police station.
In an interaction with Cobrapost team, many months before his death, Singh made many revelations on how the state government of the time under Samajwadi party, turned every stone to manipulate the outcome of the medical report and FSL examinations.
In Akhlaq lynching case, a group of people of his own village Bishara in September 2015 broke into his house and killed him. Akhlaq was accused of killing a calf and consuming its meat. Singh was in charge of the Jarcha police station then. He acted swiftly and arrested 10 men while trying to maintain communal harmony. The lynching took place in Akhilesh ruled Uttar Pradesh but when it hit the headlines. Mainstream media portrayed it as though central govt. was responsible for the whole incident.
Later on, 18 arrests were made in the case. But 40 days before the investigation was complete, Mr. Singh was shunted out of it. Actually, the Akhilesh government was trying to twist the whole incident by arm-twisting the officials concerned. Subodh Singh was transferred as he was not willing to break under the pressure.
While talking to Cobrapost, Singh revealed many shocking facts. Recalling the incident, how he was asked to “change the meat”, he said, “Nahi pressure toh political pressure toh kuch nahi tha political toh yah tha ki iss meat ko jo jab Samajwadi Party waali sarkaar thi wo yah chahti thi hum logon ko aur doctor ko bhi dawaab banaaya gaya ki is meat ko change kar diya jaaye … (No, there was political pressure. The Samajwadi Party government wanted us [the police] and the [veterinary] doctor to be pressurized to change the meat).” Here The officer then added “Raat ko hua ki yahan bhi change karaaya gayaa meat. Lekin maine change karne se manaa kar diya (The meat was changed here during the night. But I refused to change the meat),” Singh informed. Telling us who did what, the officer said, “Ek SDM, ek CO, doctor, FSL Mathura bhi aaye the unhone meat ko dene se mana kar diya tha, sub-inspector bhi aaya tha (One SDM, one CO, doctor from FSL Mathura had also come. They had refused to return the meat sample … one sub-inspector from our department had also come).” You mean the government wanted the meat to prove not of cow origin, we asked him. The officer said, “Haan gaay saabit na ho (Yes, it is not proved a cow).” Even then DGP had spoken to him on this issue, as Singh said, “Unko bhi pata tha, humse bhee poochha tha DGP sahib ne ki … tum ko kya laga prathm drishtya dekh ke khaal baraamad ho rahi bail kee khaal baraamad ho rahi hai safed … se barabar hota hai gaay ka hai yah meat. Teesre din change karwa rahe the 28 tareekh ke bajaye 31 tareekh (He too knew it. DGP sahib had also asked me … what you saw prima facie. We had seized the hide. Was it the hide of a bullock? White makes it certain that this it cow meat only, they were asking me to change it on 31st after three days, instead of 28th).”
Eventually, the meat sample was proven to be that of a cow by the forensic department. The exclusive by Cobrapost clearly shows how the then ruling Akhilesh Govt. and his pet officials including SDM, DM Nagendra Pratap Singh, the then FSL Mathura and DGP at that time tried to manipulate the facts. Subodh Kumar, however, stood his ground and refused to do the bidding of Akhilesh Govt.
Even when it has become clear that Subodh Kumar was on the honest side of the Akhlaq story the media is now trying to link Subodh Kumar’s death in Bulandshahr with the Akhlaq story as if he was involved in some sort of cover-up.
Martyr Subodh Kumar’s story proves that the biggest culprit in Dadri and Bulandshahr was the mainstream media.
Here are few of the headlines, running in mainstream media, trying to link his death with Akhlaq’s lynching.
Our mainstream media, also known as vultures are busy trying to get TRP’s out of an unfortunate incident. They are trying to paint him as some sort of a rebel who took a stand against the Yogi government and was killed as a part of some non-existent conspiracy when he was, in fact, the only person who took a stand against the Samajwadi government that wanted him to replace the original evidence with the forged one.