‘I’m alive’, says man who was rumoured to have been killed in Kasganj violence.

KASGANJ: A day after UP Police stated that Rahul Upadhyay, whose death aggravated the rampant violence across Kasganj district, is alive, the man himself has spoken up.

“One of my friends informed me of rumours on social media about me getting killed during Kasganj clashes. But I was not present in Kasganj at the time when the riots took place. I had gone to my village. I am absolutely fine,” Rahul said.

Four people have been arrested for spreading the rumour of Rahul’s death. “Contrary to rumours spread on social media, Rahul Upadhyay is alive. We have arrested four people for spreading false rumours,” Inspector General Aligarh Range, Sanjeev Gupta said. 

Rumours had been doing the rounds that Rahul had been killed along with another person named Chandan Gupta, in the clashes which broke out in Kasganj on Republic Day.

Angered by the rumours of Rahul’s death, mob had staged a violence over the course of three days. Over 30 people were on Sunday sent to jail on charges of murder and 51 others were detained by police, in connection with the violence that erupted in the vicinity.

One person had died and two others were injured after a clash broke out between two communities during a ‘Tiranga Yatra’ in the district on Republic Day. Both the groups reportedly pelted stones and also fired bullets at each other.

Concerned over the situation, Governor Ram Naik had termed the communal clashes as a “blot” on the state and asked the state authorities to initiate measures to ensure such incidents did not recur.

Under fire over the violence, the UP government had shunted out Kasganj Superintendent of Police Sunil Kumar Singh to “a less significant post”, according to officials. Piyush Srivastava was appointed the new Kasganj SP. Singh was sent to Police Training School, Meerut, in the same rank, they said.

The state authorities also presented a cheque of Rs 20 lakh to family members of Chandan Gupta, who was killed in the violence.

At least three shops, two buses and a car were torched after Gupta was killed in clashes following stone- pelting by a mob on a motorcycle rally taken out to celebrate Republic Day.

Volunteers of organisations like the Vishva Hindu Parishad, Hindu Mahasabha and ABVP had taken out the rally – ‘Tiranga Yatra’. After passing through the Kotwali area, they were about to pass through a Muslim dominated area when some people objected to its passage.

This resulted in heated exchange of words and eventually escalated to firing in which Gupta lost his life, according to officials.