New Delhi: The Haryana Police have arrested at least seven people, including two minors, for allegedly beating to death a Muslim ragpicker from West Bengal on the suspicion that he had consumed beef.
Charkhi Dadri Superintendent of Police (SP) Pooja Vashisht said that five adults who had been arrested on 28 August were taken into police remand for questioning in the case. The minors were produced before the juvenile justice board and then sent to juvenile homes.
The individuals who were arrested—Shaka, Shahil, Mohit, Ravinder and Karamjit—had been named, along with two minors, in the complaint by Sujauddin Sardar, the brother-in-law of the victim, Sabir Malik.
Vashisht also said that police had arrested three other people who were not listed as accused by the complainant in the case and that they were being questioned in police custody.
According to the complaint filed by Sujauddin at the Badhra Police station in Charkhi Dadri, the alleged incident took place on 27 August.
Sujauddin said that Sabir moved from South 24 Parganas, West Bengal, to Charkhi Dadri in Haryana nearly four years ago and started working as a ragpicker. He is survived by his wife and a two-year-old daughter.
“I was informed around 8pm Tuesday by the police that my brother-in-law had died. My sister had informed me earlier in the day that some people picked him up from our jhuggi (shanty) on the pretext of giving some rags from the bus stand for which he left home.” Sujauddin told ThePrint.
‘Allegations prima facie true’
ThePrint has seen a copy of the FIR filed under sections 103(1) (murder); 115 (voluntarily causing harm); 140(1) (kidnapping or abducting in order to murder); 190 (unlawful assembly, guilty of offence committed in prosecution of common object); 191(3) (rioting, being armed with a deadly weapon or with anything which, used as a weapon of offence, is likely to cause death); and 61(criminal conspiracy) of the Bharatiya Nyaya Sanhita.
The FIR is based on the complaint by Sujauddin in which he alleged that he, along with other ragpickers, was confronted near their shanty Tuesday by some individuals who accused them of eating beef. Around the same time, his brother-in-law Sabir was lured by some people to come to the Badhra bus stand on the pretext that they would give him rags.
When Sabir, accompanied by another ragpicker, Aseeruddin from Assam, reached the location, they were beaten up by a group of four or five “cow vigilantes”, according to the complaint.
Sujauddin identified some of them, including Shaka and two others whose names have been withheld because they are minors, after reviewing videos that had emerged of the assault.
In the complaint that formed the part of the FIR, Sujauddin further alleged that these “cow vigilantes” abducted Sabir and Aseeruddin with the intention of killing them, and later dropped them at a plot in Bhandwa village of the district.
“Prima facie, the allegations of abduction and death due to assault appear to be true. We are taking the strictest possible action,” Vashisht told ThePrint.
The assault occurred in the afternoon on 27 August, Vashisht said. She also referred to another incident earlier that day, when a large group of people, including those accused in the assault, had called the police to shanties in the Badhra area, accusing the residents of consuming beef.
To ease tensions, considering the size of the crowd, both the complainants and some of the residents were brought to the police station to ensure the safety of all the people, she said.
(Edited by Sanya Mathur)
Will their houses be bulldozed?
People want minorities protected in another country Bangladesh but does not care about the minorities in their own country. Hypocrisy has crossed all limits.