The prime accused of the shootout incident in Uttar Pradesh’s Ballia Dhirendra Singh, who is reported to be an aide of BJP leader, came out in defence of his act through a video.

“I don’t know who fired. I was pleading with officials to save my family. They just stood there and watched… I am a soldier. I have always believed in serving my country. I urge the chief minister for a fair probe,” the accused said in the video.

Advertisement

“Yesterday, there were a lot of top officials were there for the meeting. I had warned them earlier that there was going to be violence. But they went ahead with the meeting. Officials were involved in the violence yesterday. They took money,” Dhirendra Singh alleged.

“My aged father fell down in the commotion yesterday. My family was targeted with sticks. I was seen being beaten in the video. I am a Rajput, I proudly served the army for 18 years. I managed to free myself and run away. They wanted to beat me to death over there,” he said.

On Thursday, the incident of hooliganism was recorded on-camera in Uttar Pradesh’s Ballia as the 46-year-old Jaiprakash was allegedly shot dead by Dhirendra Singh, a BJP worker who is said to be close to party MLA Surendra Singh.

Taking action on the incident, Chief Minister Yogi Adityanath had ordered the suspension of officials present at the spot of the incident.

After the firing took place, a stampede followed that has been captured in a video.

It is worth noting that Surendra Singh was in news few days ago also for his statement amid the Hathras agitation by saying that in order to control over the rape cases, it’s the duty of all mothers and fathers to imbibe good values in their daughters and bring them up in cultured environments.

“I am a teacher along with being an MLA. Such incidents (like rape) can be stopped only with sanskar (culture), not with shasan (good governance) or talwar (referring to sword or might),” BJP MLA Surendra Singh had said while talking to a reporter.

The reporter had asked him a question: “Why do you think rape cases are continue even as is people say this is Ram Rajya?”