Ambedkar Nagar: None of the girls in a tiny Uttar Pradesh village in Ambedkar Nagar district want to go to school. Not after what happened to their neighbour—the 17-year-old class 11 student who died in what villagers are now calling a ‘murder-molestation accident’.
She was cycling back home from school on 15 September, when two young men on a bike allegedly tugged at her dupatta. She lost her balance, fell on the busy road, and was run over by another motorcyclist.
Within an hour of the accident, three Muslim men were arrested, two of whom were later shot by the police in the knee. The incident has split the neighbourhood, with outcries over police brutality on one hand and cheers for ‘half-encounters’ in Yogi Adityanath’s Encounter Raj on the other. It has pitted two villages against each other with both settling on disparate versions of what actually happened—the men harassing her versus the girl’s bicycle handle hitting the bag of the pillion rider on the bike. And now, the girl’s father is demanding an Adityanath signature—bulldozer justice.
“I want my Yogi Baba’s bulldozer to raze their houses. They should be hanged,” he said in a loud voice.
On any given day, roads in this village in Ambedkar Nagar district are filled with girls riding bicycles to and from school. The wind in their hair, their laughter ringing down the streets that meander through the busy market and lush green fields. All of it has stopped since 15 September.
“Since that day, other girl students have refused to attend class. They are terrified,” declared 13-year-old Adarsh Verma from Ramraji Inter College. Parents and village elders say they will not send their daughters to school unless their safety and security are guaranteed.
I want my Yogi Baba’s bulldozer to raze their houses. They should be hanged
– deceased girl’s father
For the police, the case is simple.
“The family first called it an accident, but prima facie we consider it a murder,” said Ambedkar Nagar SP Sinha.
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A history of harassment
Less than 48 hours after the CCTV footage of the accident went viral on social media, the police arrested three Muslim youth from the neighbouring Harsimhar Pur village—Mohammed Shabaz (18), his brother Arbaz (16), who allegedly harassed her, and Faizal (24), the alleged rider of the bike that ran over the girl. On 17 September, both Faizal and Shahbaz were shot in the knee by the police, which claims the two ‘attacked’ them while being escorted for medical examination.
Shortly after the incident, CM Adityanath warned that Yamraj, the god of death, is waiting for those who molest women. Earlier this week, during a three-hour-long meeting with police officials, he pulled up Ambedkar Nagar’s superintendent of police. If the government had not instructed the authorities to take action, they would have offered sweets to criminals, he said.
The police have identified the fourth person, who was riding pillion on Faizal’s bike, as Munnu. He is yet to be arrested. All three arrested have been charged under POCSO Act as well as IPC Sections 302 (murder), 307 (attempt to murder), 354 (using criminal force to outrage a woman’s modesty), and 279 (negligent driving).
But the girl’s father is angry with the police. According to the family, the men had been harassing the girl for months, following her as she rode her cycle.
“A few days before the incident, I had verbally complained to the police but they did nothing,” said the father. His daughter would be alive had they acted on his complaint, he says. The SHO has since been suspended for failing to register the complaint.
The father also claims to have identified the fourth man after his niece, who was cycling with his daughter, recognised him.
Now, there’s a steady stream of local politicians, media persons, and YouTube influencers knocking on the family’s door. Panchayat president Shyam Sundar Verma (BJP), district block chief Anand Verma (BSP), and former MLC Vikas Patel (BSP) have visited the family and assured them of justice.
The girl’s elder sister says she learnt about the harassment from her about six months ago. “She told me they used to roam outside the school and coaching centres in Hirapur Mandi.” Once, she claims, her sister came running into the house saying the men were outside. “I rushed out to catch them but they were on a bike and fled,” said the sister, who went into shock and had to be hospitalised when she heard about the incident. “My sister had dreams of becoming a doctor,” she said.
But the police have yet to prove that the four involved in the road incident were the same men who were harassing the girl.
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Rallying against ‘harassment’
Villagers claim there’s been a rise in cases of harassment and molestation in public places in recent months. However, the police from the jurisdictional Hanswar station say they have not received complaints. Incidentally, this was the same station where the father had gone to complain about his daughter being harassed.
The tragedy has become a rallying point for nearly all the 30 families in the tiny village who insist that their daughters are being harassed in public places.
“No girl is ready to go to school. And we will not send them alone now. We will not let them go until we are sure that the administration is with us,” said a village elder.
Class 11 student Riya Gautam, who studies in the same school as the deceased girl, still cycles to school. But that’s because she lives in another village; her parents have forbidden her from talking to anyone.
“There hasn’t been any classwork since 15 September. Everyone was crying a lot. And our parents have asked us to be careful while going to school,” says Gautam.
But school principal Dhyanchand Verma says that not only attendance hasn’t dropped, he has also not received any complaints about girls being harassed outside the school building.
“There is nothing like this. Students are coming to school,” he said.
The police have increased security around the school. The surrounding market has been barricaded and police officers have been stationed at various locations.
Authorities are worried that this paranoia will spread to other villages as well. Uttar Pradesh has one of the highest proportions of out-of-school girls in India. While the national average dropped to 2 per cent, it was more than 10 per cent for UP along with Madhya Pradesh and Chhattisgarh, according to the Annual Status of Education Report (ASER) 2022.
No girl is ready to go to school. And we will not send them alone now. We will not let them go until we are sure that the administration is with us
-elder from the deceased girl’s village
Prashant Kumar, additional director general (law and order) of UP Police, said that women’s safety is a priority for the Adityanath government.
“We have anti-Romeo squads and a lot of exemplary action is also taken. They are deployed on duty outside schools and colleges both in uniform and in plainclothes. Complete care is taken from our side,” said Kumar.
‘Not my sons’
Resentment is on the rise in neighbouring Harsimhar Pur village as well—similarly against the authorities. Villagers, especially young men and teenage boys, are scared of police action and angry at the way cops have treated Shabaz and Arbaz.
Around 4.30 pm on 15 September, an hour after the incident, the police picked up the brothers. Faizal had already been arrested from the spot. The brothers’ father, Jamal Ahmed, runs a garage in the area and had accompanied his sons to the police station.
Ahmed says his sons have been falsely accused of harassing the girl. “I saw the CCTV footage on my phone. They are not my sons,” he said.
Their aunt Farhana Khatoon pulls out a photograph of the two boys and compares them with a screengrab from the clip. “See, they are not the same people. The men on the bike are older,” she said.
Both Shabaz and Arbaz attended the same school as the deceased girl. Neighbours claim that after the school was over, the boys would go to their father’s garage—a 10-minute walk from the accident site—to help him. The brothers don’t own a motorcycle, but often have to test drive those that come to their garage for repair.
“At the station, police told me that my sons were not visible in the CCTV footage and that all of us would be released soon. We were crying. The officer kept asking us why we were nervous and weeping,” said Ahmed, who was detained along with his sons.
He was finally allowed to leave the station after five days, while his sons had been formally arrested.
“They beat all of us with belts, including Arbaz, who is a minor,” the father said.
The brothers are currently lodged in Akbarpur jail, but their lawyer, Balkrishna, has filed a petition with the additional chief judicial magistrate to move them both to a juvenile justice home. While Shahbaz’s Aadhaar card mentions him as 18 years old, his school mark sheet shows he is 16.
Like Ahmed, Faizal’s family, which lives in another village, is also pleading for his release. Faizal was at the scene, but his parents say he was helping the girl.
“But police arrested him on the spot,” said the uncle, Mohammad Atiq (52). “It was an accident, which is being treated as murder. My nephew is a Hafiz (someone who has memorised the Quran). He is known for his decency.”
Faizal’s uncle, Mohammad Atiq, holds up a picture of him | Heena Fatima | ThePrint
He claims that the men did not pull the girl’s dupatta, but that the bag one of them was holding got stuck in the girl’s bicycle handle, causing her to lose her balance. Several people at the accident site, who claimed to be eyewitnesses, spoke to ThePrint, reiterating this version and calling it “an accident”. None of them, however, have given their statements to the police.
“Cops have not questioned me,” said a shopkeeper who saw what happened.
What has riled the community, though, is the force used by the police and the fact that they shot the men. In its report, the police has claimed it opened fire when Shahbaz and Faizal grabbed a rifle from one of the cops escorting them to the hospital.
Ahmed rejects the police’s version. “Shahbaz told us that the police first took him near Singhpur and asked him to get out of the car and run. After that, they shot him in his right leg. They beat Arbaaz and broke his leg,” the father said.
Ambedkar Nagar SP Sinha denied the allegations, saying that the police used minimum force, which was why their legs were targeted.
But in the village, the police’s version has made many question their competency. “How will policemen whose rifles are snatched by 16-17-year-old children protect any girl or the country?” asked a young man.
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Rise in half encounters
There’s been an uptick in such ‘encounters’ in Uttar Pradesh under the Adityanath government.
Tackling crime and ganglords is high on Adityanath’s agenda, and Ambedkar Nagar district was home to one of the state’s top criminals: Khan Mubarak, underworld don Chhota Rajan’s sharpshooter and a close aide. He was charged with 40 cases of kidnapping, murder, and extortion, among other crimes.
Although he died three months ago at Hardoi district hospital, villagers are terrified that they’ll be caught in the police dragnet in the war against gangs.
“We fear that we will be labelled as Khan Mubarak’s thugs and put in jail on false charges,” said a young villager.
Since Adityanath became CM in March 2017, at least 178 ‘listed criminals’ have been gunned down, and 4,911 have been injured as of 6 March 2023. As many as 13 police officers were killed and another 1,424 received injuries during the same period, according to data shared by the UP government.
“Agar apradh karenge toh thok diye jayenge (If they commit crimes, they will be killed),” Adityanath had said in 2017 after becoming the chief minister.
Human rights and social activists working with prisoners describe cases of ‘half encounters’ where the accused are allegedly taken to isolated places, blindfolded and then shot in the knee. These charges are refuted by the UP Police. Encounters are not government policy, said ADG Kumar, adding that the police can, however, shoot in “self-defence”.
How will policemen whose rifles are snatched by 16-17-year-old children protect any girl or the country?
“The police first ask them to surrender. When they fire, the police also retaliate. Our policemen have also been martyred. In such a situation, the government has a policy to curb the criminals. NCRB data shows that the crime rate has reduced in the state,” said Kumar.
The kutcha three-room house where Arbaz and Shahbaz live with their family abuts a busy road. There is no throng of politicians, mediapersons, and YouTuber influencers outside. The door is shut, but inside, the women can be heard weeping, waiting for news on the two men.
(Edited by Theres Sudeep)