Moradabad: About an hour past midnight, Shahedeen Qureshi bid his wife and sons goodbye and headed out to earn some extra cash. Police say he went to the local sabzi mandi, where around 3 am later that night he and his alleged accomplices were caught slaughtering a cow for meat. After those accompanying him fled, Shahedeen was assaulted by a mob for nearly an hour before police arrived at the spot and took him to a hospital.
The 37-year-old succumbed the next day to injuries suffered in the assault.
“Who gave them the right to take a human life over the death of an animal? Who are they to take law into their own hands,” asked his widow Rizwana, her words punctuated with sobs. “What happened to my husband is cruel. He was killed before his time.”
While his post mortem report was not immediately available, police say Shahedeen died of antemortem injuries—injuries suffered prior to death.
Moradabad police have booked Shahedeen and his alleged accomplices under relevant sections of the Uttar Pradesh Prevention of Cow Slaughter Act. A case has also been filed in connection with Shahedeen’s death against unidentified accused under Section 103(1) of the Bharatiya Nyay Sanhita (BNS) which corresponds to the punishment for murder.
Senior Superintendent of Police (SSP) Satpal Antil said Section 103(1) was invoked on the basis of a complaint by Shahedeen’s brother. “According to the complaint, the offence of lynching is not made out,” he told ThePrint.
In BNS, sections 103(2) or 117(4) deal with the offence of mob lynching—“a group of five or more persons acting in concert” to commit murder or cause grievous hurt “on the ground of race, caste or community, sex, place of birth, language, personal belief or any other similar ground”.
Additional Superintendent of Police (City) Kumar Ran Vijay Singh too insisted this was not a case of lynching. “Technical definition of lynching is if someone is killed over caste, creed, religion, but here the mob didn’t know his [Shahedeen’s] religion. So how can it be called lynching?”
Asked about a purported video in which the mob assaulting Shahedeen can be heard using a religious slur, Singh said the police were yet to probe any such videos.
“He was also suffering from a lot of ailments, and was highly diabetic,” Singh said, adding that Shahedeen’s health issues reduced his chances of survival.
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What happened that night
According to police and the family, Shahedeen left his house at around 1 am on 30 December, seemingly, for Mandi Samiti along with his friend Adnan.
Though what happened next is the subject of an ongoing investigation, Kaushal, a resident of Mandi Samiti, told ThePrint that traders saw a group of 3-4 people slaughtering a cow and chased after them. “There are a lot of stray cows and oxen over here. Often, butchers come to steal them, but we’ve never been able to catch hold of anyone. At around 3 am when the mandi was just opening, we saw people butchering a cow and ran after them,” he said, standing at the exact spot where Shahedeen was assaulted.
Police arrived at the spot only around 4 am. They later said they recovered animal remains from the spot which they disposed of.
Back home, Shahedeen’s wife and sons were growing restless. Calls to him went unanswered from 3 am till 9 am, said his widow Rizwana. She said the police alerted them to Shahedeen’s condition around 4 pm that day.
“We reached the civil hospital and saw him emerge from the CT scan room. He was unconscious and brutally beaten. His eyes and ears were swollen and his fingers broken. He was barely breathing,” said Shahedeen’s sister-in-law, adding that they shifted him to two other hospitals for treatment before he succumbed to injuries early Tuesday morning.
Shahedeen lived with his young family in a rented accommodation, barely four kilometres from the Mandi Samiti area where he was assaulted. He worked in the city’s thriving brass industry as a labourer. The family said dealing with his diabetes made it difficult to make ends meet—his sons Arham (15), Afi (13) and Hirzan (10) had to drop out of school.
“For an extra Rs 500 Shahedeen left for work at night,” said a relative who did not wish to be named. Adding, “He had to feed his family.” Shahedeen was allegedly hired to drive a truck that night by his friend Adnan, whose whereabouts were unknown.
One relative claimed Shahedeen was killed because he was a Muslim. “This killing is not about the legality of cow slaughter. He was killed for being a Muslim.”
The eldest son, his face hardened by the shock, added that the family wanted justice. “What happened to him [Shahedeen] should happen to the perpetrators [of the assault].”
(Edited by Amrtansh Arora)
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The reporter seems too eager to be a part of the elite Left-liberal media cabal. Comes across as a wannabe secularist.
Finds faults with devout Hindus standing up for their religious rights and shamelessly demonizes them as fanatics. But would not speak a word on the blatant encroachment and desecration of Hindu religious spaces by members of the Muslim community.
Seems line an example of the “un-hyphenated journalism” that The Print is so proud of.
Ms. Misra is a piece of art. She decries the devout Hindus seeking to protect and preserve temples in Benaras. At the same time she pines the loss of “safe space” for young couples at OYO.
Her brand of modernity is what is wrong with today’s India.
It stands for a deracinated India whose only focus should be in seeking bodily sensual pleasures. While that might work for Ms. Misra as an individual, but if followed by the masses will lead to social decadence.