Assam Chief Minister and BJP leader Himanta Biswa Sarma said Mehrauli’s killing had an “element of love jihad” and said that apart from roads and electricity, safety of daughters was also an issue for the poll. Responding to a question on Shraddha Walkar‘s murder case during the election campaign, Sarma on Thursday called for a strict law to prevent “love jihad”, saying the case is about women’s safety and also has an “element of love jihad”.
“Aaftab brought Sharddha to Delhi for marriage. He cut her body into 35 pieces and put it in the fridge…then he brought another woman in the same room…it’s about women’s safety, it’s about security.” my daughter and there is an element of love jihad,” he said at the Times Now Summit here. Aaftab Amin Poonawala allegedly strangled Walkar, 27, and cut her body into 35 pieces, which he kept in a 300-litre fridge for nearly three weeks at his residence in Mehrauli, south Delhi, before dumping them across the city a few days after midnight. Walkar was reportedly killed in May.
Sarma also said that leftist historians have betrayed the country. He said those who wrote Indian history wanted to paint a “bigger picture” of Aurangzeb vis-a-vis Indian kings. The Assam chief minister, who was campaigning in the Gujarat assembly polls, defended his remarks comparing Congress leader Rahul Gandhi’s appearance to that of former Iraqi dictator Saddam Hussein. He said the Congress leader was batting in the pavilion with gloves and pads when the pitch was elsewhere. He said that while the Congress was contesting the Gujarat polls, Gandhi was walking with Medha Patkar in Madhya Pradesh in the Bharat Jodo Yatra.