On April 8, killings of two young Muslim men were discovered in small villages of Jharkhand. While one was suspected of being a sand smuggler, the other was suspected of theft.
Wasim Sajjad (25), an Arts graduate used to work in Mumbai and was visiting his grandmother in Khal village. Wasim’s father, Mumtaz Ansari, a teacher, spoke to eNewsroom and said that he received a call saying that the police had caught his son and when they reached the police station, they saw Wasim was tied “like an animal inside the back seat of a Bolero vehicle.” He said that before falling unconscious, Wasim said that he was mercilessly beaten by police inspector Krishan Kumar while he was going back home from his grandmother’s place. The police claimed that Wasim had met with an accident as he was trying to escape when the police were chasing him for smuggling sand on his tractor. Ansari refuted these claims saying that their tractor was defunct and was at their house. When taken to Garhwa Hospital, Wasim was declared dead.
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The accused, Krishan Kumar apparently is an officer of ill repute with a tainted career. He was transferred from Ranchi to Garhwa. It has been claimed that the police had refused to file an FIR against Kumar and only when the villagers blocked the Dhurki block road for 11 hours and after the intervention of State Minister Mithilesh Thakur, did the police file FIR. In the FIR, Ansari has stated that Kumar stomped on his son’s chest and also beat him up with the buttstock of a gun “without any reason”.
However, reportedly, no further action has been taken against Kumar.
Instead, a counter FIR of sand smuggling has been filed against Wasim and his family. Garhwa Superintendent of Police Anjani Kumar Jha told Indian Express, “There is a murder FIR as per the father of Sajjad’s claim. Our version is that Sajjad’s family has a history of sand smuggling activities and one of their vehicles had also been seized recently and kept at a police station. On April 7, while the police party was conducting checks, they found Sajjad with a tractor full of smuggled sand. On seeing the police party, Sajjad tried to flee and sustained injuries. Both cases are being investigated.”
22-year-old lynched
In another incident, in Pandri villager, about 45 kms from Ranchi, a 22-year old man, a painter, was lynched to death by a mob after tying him to a tree on suspicion of theft. Wajid Ansari, had met with an accident 20 days ago where he injured his head thus causing him mental distress. His father, Hafizul Rehman claimed that he received a call that his son was being beaten up by a mob in the neighbouring village, Mahuatoli. When they reached the spot, Wajid was already unconscious. Apparently Wajid has entered the garden of one Jeevan Oraon and was breaking some branches of a tree when he must have been caught and beaten up by the mob on allegations of theft.
Ranchi SSP Kaushal Kishore told The Indian Express that when the police took Wajid to the Hospital, he was declared dead and that they were waiting for the post mortem report as “there were no apparent injuries”.
The family refuted the allegations of theft against Wajid and said that he had no criminal past and was a volunteer with the National Human Rights and Crime Control Bureau (NHRCCB), which claims to be a New Delhi-based non-profit human rights group.
The father claims that he has not been given any FIR copy and was not sure if the FIR has been registered. However, he told eNewsroom that police arrested three persons, Jeevan Oraon, his son Govardhan Oraon and their neighbour Nandu Oraon. But Rehman claims that there were at least 14 people in the mob responsible for killing his son.
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