The Uttar Police has denied a rumour that is being spread on social media that a BJP leader is behind the murder of BJP worker Surendra Singh in Amethi. Singh was a former village head who was a close aide of Amethi MP Smriti Irani and worked on the ground during the campaigning for Smriti Irani ahead of elections. Local BJP workers and his family members had alleged that he was killed for working for BJP.
In development to the story, today several people started claiming that UP DGP has said that Singh was killed by a fellow BJP leader due to intra-party rivalry. Several office-bearers of the Congress party posted the claim on Twitter, quoting a report by Economic Times.
https://twitter.com/RuchiraC/status/1133771120874647552?ref_src=twsrc%5Etfw
National Convenor of Congress Social Media cell tweeted that the close aide of Smriti Irani was killed by BJP workers who were his local rivals and not due to Congress conspiracy. She claimed that UP police had confirmed the same.
https://twitter.com/drshamamohd/status/1133936557860065281?ref_src=twsrc%5Etfw
https://twitter.com/GauravPandhi/status/1133744293330341894?ref_src=twsrc%5Etfw
Several other Congress functionaries and supporters spread the same claim, all of them quoting media reports which were based on comments made by OP Singh, the Director General of Police (DGP) in UP. When the same claim was made by the official Twitter handle of Chandigarh Congress Sevadal, it came to the notice of UP police. The official Twitter handle of UP Police tweeted that this is a deliberate distortion of facts, and said that the reports they are quoting itself do not say that DGP named any political party was involved in the crime. They also informed that they are forwarding the tweet to Amethi police for taking legal action of spreading the rumour.
https://twitter.com/Uppolice/status/1134057252615180288?ref_src=twsrc%5Etfw
If we go by the media reports quoted by the Congress leaders, it becomes clear that the UP DGP didn’t name BJP or any other party while talking about the murder. His statement as quoted in the Hindustan Times reports is, “We have arrested three suspects. Two suspects are still absconding and we will nab them soon. On the basis of all evidence, it is very clear that this is a case of local level political rivalry.” NDTV also has published the same quote. The Economic Times has paraphrased the DGP but the comment is same as other reports.
Some Congress workers quoted a report from Khabarbar, which said that Singh was murdered due to a “local-level political rivalry within the BJP”. But the quote from DGP they have mentioned is same as the quote reported by Hindustan Times, which says that “the victim had local-level political rivalry.” It does not contain the words ‘within BJP’, which they have added in the report.
Congress social media team member, Gaurav Pandhi, who has earlier been caught spreading fake news, deleted his tweet after UP Police called out the lies. However, UP Police continued to maintain the tough stand. UP Police has promised a threadbare investigation and an FIR has been lodged in this regard already.
https://twitter.com/Uppolice/status/1134175385912954880?ref_src=twsrc%5Etfw
From the media reports quoting DGP and the clarification by UP police, it becomes clear that the DGP didn’t say Surendra Singh was killed due to rivalry in the BJP. He said Singh was killed to rivalry at the local level, which means at the Panchayat level. The DGP didn’t name BJP or any other political party, and the Congress leaders are deliberately distorting the comments of DGP to point fingers toward BJP for the murder.
Smriti Irani attended the last rite of Singh, and even gave her shoulder to the mortal remains of the victim in his last journey. She had said that she has taken vow that she will take death sentence for the culprits of the case, even if she has to go to Supreme Court.