Haryana Chief Minister Manohar Lal Khattar has other things on his mind, clearly. And the controversy over beef biryani in Haryana and the gangrape and murder of two sisters in the state don’t figure among them.
At an event to celebrate 50 years of Haryana, when Mr Khattar was asked about the CBI probe in the Mewat gangrape case and the beef controversy by reporters, he said:
These are non-issues. I don’t pay much attention to these small issues. Today we should be talking about Swarna Jayanti.Manohar Lal Khattar, Chief Minister, Haryana
When prompted again, he said “These were petty issues compared to golden jubilee celebrations and could take place anywhere in the country.”
A 20-year-old woman and her 14-year-old cousin were gangraped by several men while their uncle and aunt were tied up and beaten to death in their home in Mewat on 24 August.
The controversy over beef allegedly being used in biryani erupted when the Haryana Cow Protection Task Force in Charge -DIG, Bharti Arora and Gau Sewa Aayog Chairman, Bhani Ram Mangla conducted a drive to check biryani and collected samples of it from highway eateries in Mewat ahead of Eid on 8 September.
Later, Haryana Minister Anil Vij said that all seven samples were found to contain beef during testing at a laboratory in Lala Lajpat Rai University of Veterinary and the Animal Sciences in Hisar.
The state government had last year enacted the Haryana Gauvansh Sanrakshan and Gau Samvardhan Act, making cow slaughter punishable by rigorous imprisonment of up to 10 years and a fine of Rs 1 lakh.
(With agencies inputs)
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