A video clip shared by Rajasthan Congress president Govind Singh Dotasra on Saturday has raked up quite a storm in the western state. The video, purportedly featuring former BJP MLA Gyan Dev Ahuja, shows him allegedly admitting that his supporters have “lynched five people” so far.

The video shows the BJP leader interrupting a speaker, who was urging a group of people to launch an agitation against the lynching of 45-year-old Chiranjilal Saini, before he made the purported remark.

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According to news agency PTI, Saini was allegedly lynched by members of the Mev Muslim community on Sunday morning in Govindgarh town on suspicion of stealing a tractor. He passed away during treatment at Jaipur’s state-run SMS Hospital on Monday.

The BJP, however, has sought to distance itself from the controversy and labelled the remarks as Ahuja’s personal views. When contacted, BJP’s Alwar (South) chief Sanjay Singh Naruka told PTI that the party “does not have this thinking”, adding, “These are his own views.” 

However, the former Ramgarh MLA said he stood by his remarks and even warned that anyone involved in cow smuggling and slaughter “will not be spared”.

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The Congress, meanwhile, said it has exposed the BJP’s true face. “What more proof is needed of the BJP’s religious terror and bigotry? The real face of the BJP has been exposed,” Dotasara said on Twitter.

Ahuja said he was sitting with a local RSS leader who suggested that an agitation be launched to protest the lynching of Chirajilal Saini. The video shows him interrupting him.

“We have so far lynched five people, be it in Lawandi or Behror. This has happened for the first time in this area that they have lynched someone. I have given free hand to workers to kill. We will get them acquitted and secure bail,” he goes on to say.

Alwar has seen at least two incidents of lynching in recent years, where people from the Mev community people have been attacked by cow vigilantes on allegations of cow smuggling.

In 2017, 55-year-old Pehlu Khan was lynched in Behror on April 1, 2017. On July 20, 2018, Rakbar Khan was beaten to death in Lawandi village in Alwar’s Ramgarh. Both were attacked on suspicion of cow smuggling.

Ahuja told PTI that he told the speaker that five Mev Muslims who were smuggling cows were “beaten up by his workers. “It is the Mev people who smuggle and slaughter cow and Hindus have sentiments for cows, therefore, they target such smugglers,” he told PTI.