Palwal: “He urinated on a brick and said that it is our Hindu God.”
Police sources in Haryana’s Palwal say this was the justification forwarded by Ompal alias Kalua, a resident of the district’s Rasulpur village, for why he and two of his friends Vishal and Akash (alias Diljale) allegedly beat up 25-year-old Rahul Khan on 13 December, leading to his death the next night.
Rahul had also been a friend of the three, and had been out drinking with them, when a fight broke out, leading to the 25-year-old’s death, said DSP Yashpal Khatana of the Palwal police. “The fight took place after the prime accused, Kalua, found his phone with Rahul Khan,” the DSP said.
According to police, Rahul’s family had initially filed a complaint of hit-and-run — based on Kalua’s claims of the deceased having met with an accident — but sections 302 (murder) and 201 (causing disappearance of evidence of offence) were added in the FIR after a video started being shared on WhatsApp on 15 December, which allegedly showed him being beaten up by the other three. ThePrint has accessed the video.
In the video, the deceased appears to be squatting on the ground, as a voice refers to him as “Mulla” (slang for Muslim). He then seems to fall on his back, after what looks like being hit repeatedly, and seems to be bleeding. As one of the voices is heard saying “Hindu hain hum” (we are Hindus), someone is heard cautioning that he might have died from the beating.
While a senior police officer privy to the case claimed that the video had been shot by Akash at the crime scene, DSP Khatana said the “video is being looked into”.
Following the surfacing of the video, Akash was arrested on 17 December and the other two accused on 18 and 19 December. While Akash is currently in judicial remand, the other two are in police remand.
A post-mortem report of the deceased mentions multiple traumatic injuries across the body — legs, heads and eyes. The cause of death, according to the senior police officer quoted above, was liver laceration.
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The events of 13 December
Rahul moved to Hoshangabad (a village located about 3 km away from Rasulpur) with his family — wife Shaheena, parents Chiddi Khan and Razoo, and two elder sisters — about two years back. His uncle, Chand Miya, was a resident of Hoshangabad, and the family was living with him.
Rahul and Shaheena, who have been married for seven years, also had two children, a son and a daughter, but lost them both to illnesses.
In Hoshangabad, Rahul, who worked as a motor mechanic, befriended the three accused. None of the four — Kalua, Akash, Vishal or Rahul — had steady jobs, and kept bad company, police sources claimed.
According to police documents, on the evening of 13 December, the four had been drinking on Rasulpur bridge around 8:30 pm, when a fight broke out, allegedly after Kalua found his phone missing and a search led to its being found with Rahul. “They had drunk one-and-a-half bottle of whiskey and had consumed smack — a narcotic substance — worth Rs 1,000,” claimed the senior officer quoted above. “These boys would roam around in bad company. During questioning, all three have said that the fight started over a phone,” he claimed, adding that the police was yet to recover the phone which allegedly started the fight.
ThePrint also met Rahul’s family Monday, and they said they had moved to a new house in the district’s Sarai Khatela village two months back. The house had been built with the pension money received by his father, Chiddi Khan, a retired railways employee.
Shaheena’s brother, Akram, who was with the family at the time of Rahul’s death, blamed Kalua for the deceased’s smack addiction and claimed that he had managed to quit since moving to Sarai Khatela, since he would meet Kalua less frequently.
On 13 December, however, the family was again in Hoshangabad to attend a wedding. “Rahul returned in the evening and went to sleep. He didn’t even go with the baraat. Around 9 pm, Kalua came to Chand Miya’s house and asked Rahul to accompany him. He left without his phone and never returned,” remembered his mother, Razoo.
Shaheena added: “We stayed up all night, worrying about him. But we were a little reassured because Kalua was with him. Next evening, a relative from Rasulpur told us that Kalua had been telling villagers there that my husband had met with an accident.”
According to the family, Rahul’s cousin Yusuf (Chand Miya’s son), immediately rushed to Kalua’s house and found him lying on a cot, soaked in blood. He was allegedly still conscious and rushed by his family to the hospital.
When Shaheena reached the hospital, she recalled, “His eyes had blood. The head had three deep wounds and was bleeding profusely. His legs had broken, the bones could be seen. I wiped the blood off his nose and eyes and he opened it. I asked him who I was and he said Shaheen. Those were his last words. His legs had cigarette marks. His feet looked like someone had drilled nails into them.”
She added: “They kept him for 24 hours without treatment. He must have yelled in pain all night.”
The deceased’s family is dismissive of claims that the fight started with Rahul allegedly taking Kalua’s mobile.
According to Shaheena, Kalua would often ask the deceased for money. “Last month he asked him for Rs 5,000. Once he stole his Vivo phone. When my husband found it with him later, he begged him to let him use it.”
She added: “My husband used an iPhone. Why would he take Kalua’s phone?”, bringing an iPhone for ThePrint to see.
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‘Hindu hain hum’
In the 31-second video which led to the arrest of the three accused, the alleged attackers can he seen slapping Rahul repeatedly. Words like “Tu Mulla” (you are a Muslim) and “Hindu hain hum” (we are Hindus), can also be heard, along with abuses being hurled at the deceased. ThePrint has accessed the video.
“We have sent the video for forensic examination to confirm the audio. It is a matter of investigation,” said the senior officer quoted above.
While he did not deny the use of religious references in the video, he dismissed any communal angle in case, claiming that the four had known each other for two years and were close friends. Blaming the incident on the accused’s state of intoxication, the officer claimed that the deceased was not targetted because of his religion.
“They didn’t throw the deceased over the bridge into the water probably because they realised they had beaten up their friend,” he said.
That is cold comfort for Rahul’s family, however. “We trusted Kalua when he said that Rahul had met with an accident. It was only after we saw the video that we realised what had happened. Muslim hai toh maar diya (because he was a Muslim they killed him),” said Rahul’s eldest sister, Razia.
Razzo and Chiddi Khan appeared numbed by the death of their son. “I have nothing left now. No children, no husband,” Shaheena said.
Meanwhile back in Rasulpur, Kalua’s neighbours are avoiding talking about the accused, and even denied knowing him when asked by ThePrint. The dilapidated house where he lived with his mother was locked when ThePrint visited. According to neighbours, she left the area Monday morning.
(Edited by Poulomi Banerjee)
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