After lynching Muslim, Regar to contest LS polls

Lucknow: Shambhulal Regar, the man who lynched a Muslim man in Rajasthan last year, will now contest the 2019 Lok Sabha elections from Agra.

The Navnirman Sena, a little known political outfit has announced Regar’s candidature from Agra.

Amit Jani, national president of the Navnirman Sena, said, “Regar will contest the elections from inside the Jodhpur jail where he is currently lodged.”

Agra is a seat reserved for members of Scheduled Castes and is currently represented by BJP’s Ram Shankar Katheria, who is also the chairman of the National Commission of Scheduled Castes (NCSC).

Amit Jani said, “I have been in touch with him for a long time now and I am pleased to say that he has agreed to be our candidate from Agra. We want only Hindutva faces to contest elections on our party’s tickets and there can be nobody better than him.”

Asked if he was comfortable associating with a man accused of such serious a crime, Mr Amit Jani said, “People like Ateeq Ahmed, Mukhtar Ansari and Raja Bhaiyya have far more serious cases against them. If someone like Shahabuddin can contest elections, then so can Regar. He is innocent until proven guilty.”

Last year in December, Regar had hacked to death a Bengali migrant worker, Mohd Afrazul who was working in Rajsamand. He had then burnt the labourer. Regar videographed the chilling incident and uploaded the video on the social media.  

Regar was arrested and sent to jail but has now emerged as a Hindu hardliner. Amit, too, was arrested in 2016 for threatening to kill former student leader Kanhaiya Kumar.