Muslim family attacked in Bhondsi fears for ‘safety’, plans to leave after cross-FIR filed

A relative of one of the victims of the 21 March attack says ‘not getting the kind of support we thought we would’.

Mohammad Dilshad, one of the injured in the attack | ThePrint

New Delhi: The Muslim family that was attacked with rods and sticks in Haryana’s Bhondsi last week is thinking of leaving the village after one of the assailants filed a cross-FIR claiming to be “attacked first”.

“We aren’t getting the kind of support we thought we would be. We met with the commissioner of police yesterday and he said he would give us protection and we should cooperate with the ongoing investigation, but we’re living in a state of constant fear,” Akhtar Siddique, the brother of one of the victims of the 21 March attack, told ThePrint.

On Thursday, 18-year-old Rajkumar — one of the men accused of assaulting the family — filed a complaint with the Bhondsi police claiming that he was attacked first by three men of the Muslim family and sustained grievous injuries in the ensuing scuffle.

The three men named in the complaint — Irshad, Abid and Shahbad — have been charged under sections 323 (voluntarily causing hurt) and 324 (voluntarily causing hurt by dangerous weapons or means) of the Indian Penal Code (IPC).

Advocate Md. Anwar, from the Association for Protection of Civil Rights who is representing the Bhondsi family in their case, said the cross-FIR “is baseless and a lie”. He called it “an intimidation tactic to scare the family into withdrawing their case”.

“The sections they (the Muslim boys) have been booked under are all bailable, and their own case against the group of assailants is very strong. There are at least 13 witnesses to the attack, so punishment is certain,” Anwar told ThePrint.

Anwar added that even on the day of the attack, two men supporting the group of assailant stayed back with members of Akhtar Siddique’s family, trying to convince them that “the attack is no big deal and that they should just let it go”.

‘Who wants to leave willingly?’

The family of Mohammed Dilshad, 32, is only one of three Muslim families that live in the Bhondsi area of Haryana’s Gurugram. The family runs a successful furniture business and is prosperous, managing to build one of the few up-scale houses in the village area.

Dilshad’s house after the attack | ThePrint

Akhtar Siddique and his family did not want to leave the area, but he said with pressure from locals, an added investigation by the police and fear of safety, “we have no choice”.

“Who would want to leave their business willingly?” Siddique asked.

“Something like this has never happened before, ever. We were living just fine.”

But their wealth and wellness, Anwar said, “only adds to the communal bitterness in the attacking group”.

“It pricks them to see Muslims doing so well,” said the advocate.

Shattered glass planes after the attack | ThePrint

Siddique said that two of his relatives named in the FIR are minors — aged roughly 16. The third is nearing his 20s.

However, the Gurugram police Press Relations Officer (PRO) Subhash Boken told ThePrint over phone that the boys are believed to be in their early 20s.

Rajkumar is currently in judicial custody after he surrendered before the police Tuesday.

The complaint letter

In the complaint letter sent from jail and dated 26 March, Rajkumar has alleged that on 21 March, he and his friend encountered Irshad and Abid playing cricket on their path through Bhondsi sometime between 4 and 5 pm.

“Their cricket ball hit me on the stomach and when I protested, they began physically fighting with me,” Rajkumar alleges. “During the scuffle, Abid hit me on the head with his cricket bat, causing me to fall.”

Rajkumar then claims that boys from nearby homes came to his rescue and alerted other young men in the village. According to his letter, he was then escorted to the nearest government hospital, after which he was transferred to another hospital in Gurugram.

Himanshu Garg, deputy commissioner of police (South Gurugram), told ThePrint that Rajkumar provided a medical report, which police cross-verified with doctors.

“We found that the injuries were indeed there, and were of a serious nature, including a head injury, which Rajkumar says was caused by being hit on the head with a bat. An FIR has been filed based on his statement and it names three people,” DCP Garg said.

“We are duty bound to register an FIR and are investigating the matter. No arrest has been made in the case yet.”

Videos circulated of Rajkumar

Photos and a video of Rajkumar have, however, begun circulating on WhatsApp amongst residents of Dhumaspur village. A resident of nearby Nayagaon told ThePrint that he has seen the photograph and it shows without a doubt that “female members of the Muslim family, as well as the children, beat Rajkumar badly. They even cut him four to five times with a chaaku (knife).”

Screenshot of one of the videos circulated on WhatsApp groups where ‘badly’ beaten Rajkumar can be seen

While Rajkumar’s official complaint makes no mention of the cuts or other members of the family, he says in the video that “I went unconscious after he hit me with a bat, and however they had to cut me after that, they did. I don’t know what happened after that.”

“I didn’t call the rest of the village boys,” he tells the man holding the camera and adds that he has 12 stitches on his forehead and four each on two places on his left arm.

The attack on the Muslim family had caused outrage after a video of the incident went viral.

As of now, police have arrested at least 11 people, including Rajkumar, for the assault.

There have, however, been attempts to dismiss allegations that the assault had communal overtones.

Kadarpur sarpanch Rajan told ThePrint that there have been no previous cases of communal violence.

Trying to dismiss the event as an argument gone wrong he said, “This matter is not as grave as it seems. People fight sometimes. The political parties are trying to gain advantage out of this incident. All the people who committed the crime have been arrested.”

Mohammad Dilshad, one of the injured family members, too denied that the fight was communal but did mention that the assailants called the family “mullahs” and told them to “go back to Pakistan”.