Rajasthan Hacking Murder: ‘Love Jihad’ Just a Cover Up for Affair

The chargesheet suggested that Regar had used the incident to cover up his illicit affair & planned it in detail.

Shambhulal Reger, who hacked a Muslim labourer to death and then burnt him, was arrested by the police on 7 December. 

(Photo Courtesy: Youtube/Jai Hindutva)

According to the chargesheet filed by the Rajasthan police on Friday, Shambhulal Regar, the Rajasthan hacker who murdered a Muslim man in cold blood and later burnt his body, all the while making his nephew record the incident, had been preparing for the event months before it actually took place.

According to Indian Express, Regar had been involved in an illegitimate relationship with a woman, and had called to tell her two months before the incident that he had a mission to complete, and he may or may not return alive. According to Hindustan Times and several other reports, Regar had used the pretext of “love jihad” to cover up this illicit affair.

While Regar had referred to the infamously famous term ‘love jihaad’ as the reason behind the murder (where he said he was protecting Hindu women from being forcibly converted to Islam), the chargesheet, which is is 413 pages long and contains 68 witnesses in the case, suggests otherwise, reports Scroll.

According to the chargesheet, Regar had tracked down a blacksmith and asked him to sharpen and work upon two different weapons about four or five months before the incident, reports Indian Express.

It also said that Regar had been training his nephew to record the murder.

<i>Isse purv, vidhi se sangharshrat balak ke dil ko majboot karne ke liye use zinda murga katwata tha</i> (To toughen his heart, he would make him cut live chickens)

Part of the charge-=sheet

It added that he would also take him to go watch goats being cut. A few days before the killing, he would take the boy to the spot repeatedly so he could get an idea of the place and train in videography for the big day, the Indian Express report, quoting the chargesheet, says.

The chargesheet also called him “characterless” for carrying on an illicit affair with a woman who wasn’t his wife. According to Indian Express, one of the women had run off with a Bengali-Muslim labourer like Afrazul, who was hacked to death by Regar, and when she returned, Regar had kept her in a house along with the other woman he had been having an affair with.

However, according to the Scroll report, Regar would keep pestering the woman who had eloped with the Bengali-Muslim labourer to come with him, but she had refused consistently, until her return.

Hindustan Times combines the information of both of these reports and suggests that the chargesheet actually indicates that Regar had used the term “love jihad” as an “excuse” to hack Afrazul to death, when it was just a cover-up to hide his own illicit affairs with another woman.

Along with murder and tampering of evidence, the police have added multiple charges against Regar which include promoting enmity between different groups on religious grounds and race, committing acts that are against maintaining harmony as well as carrying out criminal conspiracies and several others, says Scroll.

According to Indian Express, Regar targeted Afrazul because he helped other migrant workers from Bengal and the former thought that by killing Afrazul, he would scare other Bengali-Muslim migrant workers from moving to Rajsamand.

“The hearing in the case is slated for 17 January,” Manoj Kumar, superintendent of police, Rajsamand told Hindustan Times.

(With inputs from Indian Express, Scroll and Hindustan Times)