"Love jihad" was a smokescreen created by Shambhu Lal Regar to hide his illicit relationship with a woman, whom he called his Hindu sister in the video justifying the murder of Muslim labourer from West Bengal Mohammed Afrazul last Deccember, says Rajasthan police chargesheet that was filed in court.
Regar, 36, hacked to death and burnt 50-year-old Afrajul’s body in Rajsamand district on December 6. The accused also allegedly got a 15-year-old relative to film the crime and uploaded it on social media, evoking countrywide horror and outrage.
According to the chargesheet, Regar may have raised the whole ‘love jihad’ claim to cover the real motive behind the murder, which was anger over the fact that the woman was still in contact with a labourer from West Bengal called Ballu Sheikh, with whom she had reportedly eloped in 2010, reported The Indian Express.
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Last month, the Rajasthan police said Regar wanted to kill another Muslim man but ended up hacking and burning Afrazul, a resident of West Bengal’s Malda, to death.
Regar told police that Afrazul, was not his target but he killed him by mistake.
“He wanted to kill one Ajju Sheikh because he was in contact with a girl. We suspect Regar had an affair with her,” Rajendra Singh Rao, police circle officer of Rajsamand, had said.
The police claimed to have recovered a diary in which Regar had written down all the remarks he made in the videos.
Hindustan Times reported that in the charge sheet filed in the court of the Rajsamand chief judicial magistrate on Friday, the police said Regar linked Afarajul’s death to love jihad, Article 370, Islamic terrorism, so that his illicit relations with the woman would not be discovered.
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Regar has been booked for murder, outraging religious feelings, and criminal conspiracy, among other charges.
“The hearing in the case is slated for January 17,” said Manoj Kumar, superintendent of police, Rajsamand, told HT.
The chargesheet added that Regar took the woman to the house of a bank manager on the pretext of getting her a loan. “There, a party was on. Regar told her that make the bank manager happy and your loan will be cleared,” reported The Indian Express.
The woman, however, managed to leave the bank manager’s house on the pretext of handing over some keys.
The police also claimed in chargesheet that the woman and Regar had physical relations.
The chargesheet added that a year before the murder, Regar had started watching videos of Hindu and Muslim fundamentalists.
The murder 6 triggered a nationwide outrage after videos of the incident went viral on social media. He also shot several videos after the murder in which he expressed his hate for Muslims. He was soon taken into custody.
