Rajasthan: Murderer Shambhulal’s Tableau Worshipped During Ram Navami Celebration

When every state was busy celebrating Ram Navmi with different tableaus of Lord Rama, the city of Jodhpur surprised everyone as people loitered on the streets with the tableau of the murderer, Shambulal Regar.

Who is Shambhulal Regar?

Regar, 36, hacked and burnt 50-year-old Afrazul in Rajsamand district on December 6. The brutal act was not only filmed as he propagated “love jihad”, but was also uploaded on social media, evoking countrywide horror and outrage.

Regar was immediately detained but that did not bar him from spreading hateful ideology and beliefs, from within his cell.

On Ram Navmi Festival-

The tableau had Shambu sitting on a chair like a king with a mattock in his hand.

There was a banner on the front of the tableau that had the words, “Hindu brothers, wake up, save your sister-daughter. Love should liberate the country from jihad”.

While the right hand side of the banner had a picture of Shambu with a caption, “Shambulal Regar, love jihad erasers”, the other side of the banner had a picture of Hari Singh Rathod who had the banner printed.

Hari Singh Rathod is not only the co-treasurer of Shiv Sena in Jodhpur, but is also associated with RSS.

When asked whether what Shambu did was right, he said, “Today, such cases are being seen everywhere. There are so many cases in our neighborhood where Hindu girls are being misled and being driven away from home. In such a way that Shambhu did exactly what he did was absolutely fine.”

As per the report on the crime committed-

Reportedly, Shambhu had volunteered to rescue a 13-year-old hindu girl who had ‘eloped’ with a Bengali muslim, Ballu Sheikh to Bengal in 2010.

The girl accused Ballu of using magic to influence her into going with him and said, “They can kill people easily.”

“When he came there, I told him to go back and that I would return on my own. I came 15 days after his visit yet he took Rs 10,000 from my mother as a price for the ‘rescue’”, said the Hindu-girl, who now considers Shambu as a brother and ties rakhi on him every year.

Shambu’s neighbours said “He was getting threats from Afrazul who also hailed from Malda’s Sayadpur village because he had taken the girl away from a fellow Bengali. After he brought the girl back to Rajsamand, Bengali labourers had beaten him. Shambu fractured his hand in the attack.”

On further investigation- A twist in the tale

“ ‘Love jihad’ was a smokescreen created by Shambhu Lal Regar to hide his illicit relationship with a woman, whom he called his Hindu sister in the video justifying the murder of Muslim labourer from West Bengal Mohammed Afrazul last December,” said Rajasthan police charge sheet that was filed in court

As per the charge sheet, the whole love Jihad propaganda had been raised by Regar to cover the real motive behind the murder, which was hatred over the fact that the woman continued to be in contact with the labourer from West Bengal.

Rajasthan police alleged, “Regar wanted to kill another Muslim man but ended up hacking and burning Afrazul to death.”

Regar agreed to the fact that Afrazul was killed by mistake and that he was not his target.

“He wanted to kill one Ajju Sheikh because he was in contact with a girl. We suspect Regar had an affair with her,” said Rajendra Singh Rao, police circle officer of Rajsamand.

Allegedly, the woman and Regar had physical relations and that a year before the murder, Regar had started watching videos of Hindu and Muslim fundamentalists.

Regar had been booked for murder, outraging religious feelings, and criminal conspiracy, among other charges.

According to his neighbors-

“Shambu is a disturbed man. He has a palm-sized tattoo on his chest of his 12-year-old mentally challenged daughter holding a globe in her hand”, one of his neighbors, a middle-aged man in khaki jacket told to Hindustan Times.

“The daughter is mentally challenged and he knew that she wouldn’t get married. He knew she will always live with him so he got her picture inked on his chest,” said another neighbor, an elderly woman.

The Logical Indian Take

Things have gone too much out of control with people blindly worshipping a murderer. If patronising murder has become the norm now, then the future of our country is bleak and frightening. We urge people to stop spreading communal hatred amongst each other. We urge you see right from wrong.