Was kept in lock-up through the night, says Assam Muslim man attacked by mob over ‘beef’

Assam police claim Shaukat Ali was not kept in a lock-up, and was merely detained at the station for ‘security reasons’.

Shaukat Ali | Twitter

New Delhi: The Muslim man who was the victim of a mob attack in Assam’s Biswanath Chariali last week for allegedly selling beef now claims he was kept “inside a police lock-up the entire night” instead of being taken to hospital.

Speaking to ThePrint over the phone, Shaukat Ali and his family said he managed to get admitted to a hospital only late morning the next day, when police released him from the lock-up around 17 hours after the brutal attack.

Police, however, claim Ali was detained at the station “only for security purposes” and was not locked up.

Ali, a resident of Biswanath Chariali, was attacked on 7 April by a mob that alleged he was selling beef. The mob allegedly forced him to eat pork, which followers of Islam consider forbidden, questioned his nationality, and asked if he was a Bangladeshi and whether his name had appeared in the National Register of Citizens (NRC).

A video clip of the attack subsequently went viral, and police arrested four of the suspected attackers.

What the victim claims

According to Ali, he was attacked around 4 pm.

“When the incident happened and I was beaten up badly, the CRPF [Central Reserve Police Force] intervened and took me to the police station,” he told ThePrint.

“There, they did some paperwork and took me for a medical examination. After that, they brought me back to the station and kept me in the lock-up the entire night. There were one or two more people in the lock-up with me, I was very badly injured so don’t remember exactly,” he added.

“It was only at 11 am the next morning that they finally let me go and got me admitted to a hospital,” Ali told ThePrint.

His family members claim that they had requested police to let him go earlier, but weren’t allowed to take him.

“We went to the station. After the medical examination, instead of being taken to a hospital, he was kept inside the lock-up,” Ali’s brother Abdul Rehman said. “We requested police to let him go, but they didn’t listen to us,” he added.

“Everyone only kept asking us what happened during the attack and nobody asked us what happened at the police station, so we didn’t talk about it,” Rehman said.

Ali was subsequently treated at Biswanath Chariali, before being referred to Guwahati Medical College, where he spent a couple of days. He is now back in his hometown, but says he “continues to be in great pain and can barely talk or hear due to a bad ear injury”.

The family says that while they are now satisfied with the progress in the case, they are resentful about the initial treatment meted out to Ali. They say he was let off “only after the video clip went viral”.

“Now police is working well, they have made arrests also. But why did they keep him locked up for an entire night instead of giving him immediate medical attention?” said Forhad-ur-Rehman, Ali’s cousin. “He did not commit a crime. He told us he also saw some of the boys who attacked him come to the station while he was in custody, and talk to police,” Forhad added.

“But instead of arresting them, it was Shaukat Ali who was kept inside the lock-up. He was released the next morning around 11 am, only after the clip went viral and police perhaps felt this was becoming a big issue,” he said.

‘Baseless claim,’ say police

Police term the claims of Ali’s family “totally baseless”.

“We brought him back to the station and kept him for the night only for security reasons,” Rakesh Raushan, Biswanath Chariali superintendent of police told ThePrint over the phone.

“There was a mob outside and it wasn’t safe to let him go,” he added.

Ali’s family, however, questioned this argument. If he was kept at the station just for safety, they said, he could just as well have been admitted to a hospital and provided security there.