‘No date for six months’: Ashok Gehlot slams BJP govt over delay in Kanhaiya Lal beheading case

On June 28, 2022, two people — Mohammad Riyaz and Ghouse Mohammad — had posed as customers and hacked to death Kanhaiya Lal Teli at his shop in Udaipur, over a post shared by him on social media in support of suspended BJP spokesperson Nupur Sharma. The BJP leader had made comments about the Prophet during a live television debate.

“The family members of Shri Kanhaiyalal have told that this case is not being run on fast track. This case is pending in NIA court, Jaipur. The additional charge of NIA court was with the judge of CBI court who has been transferred due to which the case is not being heard. There has been no date in the case for the last six months,” Gehlot said.

“Before this, the statements of witnesses were going on but the statements of the three main witnesses have not been recorded yet. Of the accused arrested in this case, two have been granted bail so far,” Gehlot said, referring to Mohammed Javed and Farhad Mohammad Sheikh alias Babla.

This month will mark three years since the murder, he wrote.

“Rajasthan police arrested the criminals in just 4 hours. Shri Kanhaiya Lal’s family was given Rs 50 lakh as compensation and his two sons were given government jobs. But BJP spread a rumour among the public that only Rs 5 lakh was given as compensation and played politics of five lakhs and fifty lakhs,” Gehlot said.

Had the investigation been with the Rajasthan Police and not been taken over by the NIA, “they probably would have been sentenced during our government’s tenure itself but it seems that BJP is only doing politics on this case”, he said.

“It does not seem that they have any intention of providing justice to the victims,” the former CM said.

However, NIA lawyer Sneh Deep told The Indian Express that “the delay is on the part of the accused”.

He said that the accused have been seeking date after date on various grounds, including the demise of an advocate, seeking time for a new one, and dissatisfaction with the one provided to them.

“The advocate of one of the accused comes from Udaipur. He says that he can’t come daily so he needs time between hearings. The NIA wants day-to-day hearing in the case and has filed an application for the same,” he said.

In November last year, the Supreme Court had issued notices to the NIA and Mohammed Javed on a petition filed by Teli’s son Yash Teli against Javed’s bail, given in September, by the Rajasthan High Court.

While Javed was accused of conducting a recce, the high court had said that “prima facie, there is not enough evidence to suggest that the appellant conspired with Riyaz Attari or that the appellant knew Riyaz was going to commit the offence of murder.”

Earlier, Farhad Mohammad Sheikh alias Babla, 31 at the time of his arrest in July 2022, was granted bail in September 2023. At least 9 persons were arrested by the state and central agencies in the case.