The trial in the Kanhaiya Lal murder case has stalled at 21 witnesses. That is out of 180. Congress leader Ashok Gehlot pointed this out on Saturday, four years after the tailor was hacked to death in his Udaipur shop.
The numbers are his. The National Investigation Agency runs the probe.
A special NIA court hears the case. The pace, Gehlot said, is not slow by accident. He called it deliberate.
A deliberate delay. The BJP holds power in Rajasthan and at the Centre.
Gehlot was chief minister when the murder happened on June 28, 2022. Two men with cleavers killed Kanhaiya Lal in the Hathipole area. They recorded it.
They posted it online. The motive was a social media post the victim had allegedly supported, one critical of Islam. Outrage followed.
So did politics. The BJP made the murder a campaign issue in the Assembly elections later that year.
Gehlot said the party used the case for votes. Now, he said, the party is silent. Prime Minister Narendra Modi and Home Minister Amit Shah no longer bring up the case during Rajasthan visits.
Gehlot told the public to see through it. He accused the BJP of playing with people’s sentiments, of lacking the intent to push for a speedy trial.
Only 21 witnesses have been examined in four years. That is where the case sits. The accused have not been punished.
The victim’s family waits. Gehlot said justice has remained elusive. He did not offer a theory on why the trial moves so slowly.
He pointed at the government in power. Both levels of government, he noted, are run by the BJP.
The party that demanded justice during elections now falls quiet, he argued. What happens next is unclear. The NIA court continues to hear the case.
The number of witnesses yet to testify stands at 159. At the current rate, years more could pass.
Gehlot’s statement is a political one, but the factual weight behind it is the witness count. That number is not in dispute. The BJP has not publicly responded to the timeline Gehlot laid out.
The party has not explained the slow progress in court. The murder itself is not forgotten. The video of the killing spread widely in 2022.
It triggered protests and arrests. The two attackers were arrested quickly.
But the trial has not moved to a conclusion. That lag is now a political weapon. Gehlot is using it.
He urged people in Rajasthan to watch what the BJP does next, not what it said during elections. The case touches more than just the accused and the victim’s family.
It tests the promise of a fast-track justice system. It tests whether a crime used for votes gets the same attention after the votes are counted. Gehlot’s point is blunt: the BJP raised the case when it helped them win.
Now they are quiet. The trial drags. The family waits.
