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- IN-DEPTH
Even though there has been a recorded spike in the number of mob lynching cases across India, after the June 4 election results, the Oppostion parties are yet to raise the issue. Most of the victims are reportedly Muslims.
The surge in mob lynching cases against minorities has been reported mostly from North and Eastern parts of India.
The recent incident came from West Bengal’s Kolkata where a mob attacked a Muslim man on July 7, resulting in his death. It is the fifth such case of mob lynching reported from West Bengal in just 30 days.
The victim, Azgar Molla from Phulbari, was found by his family about 500 meters from the Bhangar police station. According to newsreports, the Molla was surrounded by a mob on the allegations of theft and lynched to death.
His family has alleged that no one came forward to save him. Meanwhile, the WB Police has said that they have sent the body for postmortem and started an investigation
In a shocking surge in mob lynching cases of minorities, about 13 such cases have come to light since June 4. Four cases were reported from Chhattisgarh, five from West Bengal, two from Uttar Pradesh, one each from Gujarat and Jharkhand.
Molla’s is also the ninth lynching of a Muslim man since June 4. One Christian woman and three Dalits were also beaten to death.
In West Bengal, a rising concern over the rising mob lynching cases against the minorities has left many families shattered. In many cases, the relatives of the victims alleged that these were just rumors and false accusations. All the deceased are from economically and socially marginalised groups.
Over 60 people have been arrested, with the Mamata Banerjee government announcing a compensation of Rs 2 lakh for the families of those lynched.
On July 1, a 23-year-old man was allegedly beaten to death in Hooghly district of West Bengal in the early hours. The victim, Biswajit Manna, was lynched in Tarakeswar area of the district after the two accused, businessmen Bikash Samanta and his son Debkanta Samanta, suspected him of stealing ₹50,000 from their house.
A 49-year-old Muslim man, identified as Muntaj Sheikh from Durgapur village of Islampur police station in West Bengal’s Murshidabad, died under suspicious circumstances at Lalbagh sub-jail.
The deceased’s family has raised several doubts, alleging their son was murdered. On Wednesday, 5 June, police carried out a raid in Islampur’s Durgapur area at night in search of heroin bars, and some people were arrested.
The incidents have left the West Bengal government in a tight spot. Some incidents have also seen the involvement of members of the ruling Trinamool Congress. Incidents of mob violence and assaults have occurred over suspicion of theft, child theft, or even family matters.
In an address in the state Assembly earlier this week, Speaker Biman Bandopadhyay blamed the incidents on the Raj Bhavan’s reluctance to sign the West Bengal (Prevention of Lynching) Bill, 2019.
The West Bengal Assembly had in 2019 passed The West Bengal (Prevention of Lynching) Bill following a string of similar lynching cases. The Bill has proposed stronger provisions, including the death penalty for those involved in mob attacks.
The Bill is still pending approval from the Governor as a result of being caught in the power struggle between Mamata’s Trinamool Congress government and then-governor Jagdeep Dhankhar.
Meanwhile, reacting to these incidents, State Municipal Affairs and Urban Development Minister Firhad Hakim said, “Mass hysteria can only be countered by mass counselling.”
Union Minister and Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) state president Sukanta Majumdar slammed the Trinamool Congress-led government and said they were failing to control such crimes in the State.
Meanwhile, journalists have been targetted in Uttar Pradesh (UP) for reporting mob lynching cases. Uttar Pradesh has reported a few cases of mob lynching cases since June 4. The sharp increase in such cases, especially against Muslims, have left the minorities scared for their lives.
However, in many cases, the Uttar Pradesh Police was seen registering cases against the deceased victim, and the journalists who reported on the crime.
For this, UP police is facing widespread condemnation for filing a criminal case against five individuals, including two Muslim journalists, who posted on social media about the killing of a Muslim scrap vendor in Shamli district, alleging it was a case of mob lynching.
The police have also registered an FIR against three persons, all Hindus, not for murder but under Section 105 of the Bharatiya Nyay Sanhita, as culpable homicide not amounting to murder.
The police said the five men shared “wrong information” about a man named Firoz Qureshi, who died at his home on the night of July 4.
According to the complaint lodged by Firoz’s family, he was beaten up by three men, allegedly by Pinky, Pankaj and Rajendra, all residents of Ganga Arya Nagar, around 8 pm. He died around 11 PM after reaching his house, said the police.
No arrests have been made in the case so far, said the police.
According to the post shared by the five men, Firoz was “killed by members of another community” on the suspicion of breaking into their house. The FIR was registered on a complaint by a sub-inspector, Manendra Kumar, of Thana Bhawan police station in Shamli.
The two journalists were identified as Zakir Ali Tyagi and Wasim Akram Tyagi, and the other three as Asif Rana, Saif Allahabadi and Ahmed Raza Khan.
Speaking to The Citizen about his name being mentioned in the FIR, Zakir Tyagi called this an intimidation technique. “There is a whole pattern that is emerging from here. Firstly, the accused to the lynching but instead to save them from the case, accuse the victim of theft so that the society starts hating them and no voice is raised,” he said.
Tyagi further said that when a journalist like him covers it or writes about it, then they are also accused. “It all comes down to shooting the messenger. Basically, attack those who are covering such incidents. After the police filed an FIR on me, a Youtube channel covered the mob lynching, for which the police registered a case against them,” Tyagi said.
The UP Police on Sunday booked YouTube channel ‘Hindustani Media’ for posting a video on its channel for calling the Shamli incident the incident mob lynching.
The report quoted a complainant as saying that the channel had published a video presenting wrong information and made allegations of mob lynching, which had the potential to provoke communal disharmony.
The channel was booked for promoting enmity between groups under section 196 of the Bharatiya Nyaya Sanhita and circulating false information to promote enmity, under section 353(2).
“This is not the first time. Even before this I had been attacked five times because of my reporting,” the journalist said.
On silence by the Opposition over the mob lynching matters, Tyagi said that he had questioned Opposition leader Rahul Gandhi on this matter during his Bharat Jodo Yatra. “When I asked him why didn’t the opposition comment on the mob lynchings against the Muslims, to which he had assured us by saying that he accepts their mistake and that they will improve their team in this regard.
“He also told me that they will personally contact me if something happens, but now with a case against me, there has been no word from their side, even though all the details have been given to them,” Tyagi said.
Despite support from some political leaders, there has been silence from the main opposition on the matters, Tyagi added. “We have complaints from the Opposition because it was independent Youtube channels like us who gave them coverage when the mainstream was ignoring them,” he said.
Tyagi said he will challenge the FIR in the High Court and Supreme Court.
The Shamli police have maintained that it was not the case of mob lynching. “On the night of July 4, Qureshi had entered the house of accused Rajendra in an intoxicated state. A scuffle broke out between the two parties. Later Firoz’s family took him home where he died.
“There was no serious visible injury on Firoz’s body. On the basis of the complaint of (Firoz’s) family members, a case was registered under relevant sections and post-mortem of the body was done,” said the police in a statement.
“It was also informed earlier that it is clear from the post-mortem report that the cause of death was not assault. The deceased had entered the accused’s house drunk. Despite this, the incident was deliberately given a communal colour and it was posted on social media as mob lynching with the aim of spreading ill will.
“Action will be taken in the FIR registered as per the post-mortem report. Appropriate FIR has also been registered against the malicious post. The accusations are irrational and hence refuted,” read the statement.
This is not a rare case. Three Muslim men from Uttar Pradesh were fatally attacked by a reportedly Hindu mob in Raipur, Chhattisgarh, on June 7. Saddam Qureshi, Chand Miya Khan, and Guddu Khan were transporting cattle when they were chased and beaten to death by the mob, which accused them of ‘cow smuggling’. Two of the men died on the spot, while the third succumbed to his injuries 10 days later.
In another incident of lynching on June 18 in Uttar Pradesh’s Aligarh, a 35-year-old Aurangzeb alias Farid was beaten to death by a group of Hindu men, sparking communal tensions in the city.
Aurangzeb and eight others were later booked by police for dacoity on June 29. Families have alleged the criminalisation of the victims in the matter
On June 22 in Gujarat’s Anand district, a 23-year-old Salman Vohra was beaten to death by a mob after attending a cricket tournament. Tensions had reportedly been escalating as allegations that some locals associated with right wing groups were upset because Muslim players were excelling in the tournament.
The mob allegedly heckled Muslim players with Hindutva slogans like “Jai Shri Ram” before the fatal assault on Vohra, who had recently married and whose wife is pregnant.
On June 26, Irshad Alam, a 37-year-old TV repair shop worker, was tied up and beaten to death in central Kolkata. Just 24 hours later, 22-year-old Prasen Mondal was lynched in the Salt Lake area.
In another incident in the state, a Muslim woman named Nehra Banu was assaulted by a mob in Barasat on June 19th after being falsely accused of child kidnapping.
In Uttar Pradesh, Dr. Istekhar, aged 25, was brutally assaulted by a mob allegedly linked to Hindutva groups in Moradabad on June 30.
Meanwhile, in Rajasthan’s Churu district, two Hindu men from Haryana were attacked by approximately 20 cow vigilantes on the night of June 30. The victims, traders identified as Sonu Banshiram (29) and Sundar Singh (35), were transporting lemons in their pickup truck from Churu to Bhatinda, Punjab.
Despite the truck’s cargo of lemons, they were accused of cow transportation. Police have detained seven individuals in connection with the incident.
In Himachal Pradesh’s Nahan town, a Muslim-owned textile shop was looted and vandalized by a mob of 400 to 500 people on June 19 after its owner allegedly shared an image of animal sacrifice on social media.
The tense atmosphere reportedly led around 16 other Muslim shopkeepers to flee the town. The accused have not been arrested till now.
Member of Parliament Chandrashekhar Azad, chief of the Azad Samaj Party, on July 8 said the law and order in Uttar Pradesh has “collapsed” in the BJP rule.
Speaking to media, Azad who had come to visit the family members who lost their loved ones in the Hathras stampede, said, “The mob lynching of the Muslim youth in the heart of the old city a fortnight ago, followed by the stampede in neighbouring Hathras is a clear pointer that the police force in Uttar Pradesh has lost the moral right to serve the common people because in both cases innocents are being framed by the police, while in both cases the guilty are moving scot-free.”
Referring to the mob-lynching incident in Aligarh on June 18, Azad claimed family members of the deceased told him “the victim had 22 broken bones and the entire sequence was captured in the CCTV in which the victim was beaten to death by steel and iron rods.”
The newly elected MP said it is a “travesty of justice” that more than half a dozen people named in the FIR are moving freely even now.
Meanwhile, the All India Kisan Sabha (AIKS) has also demanded a stringent law against lynching and hate crime.
Speaking about the mob lynching in Chhattisgarh, AIKS said it was a “planned killing”. In a statement by the AIKS issued after a delegation comprising its and the All-India Agricultural Workers Union (AIAWU) members met the victims’ families last week.
The delegation met the families of Tehsim Qureshi in Banat town, and Chand Mian and Saddam Qureshi in Lakhnauti village of Uttar Pradesh and handed over cheques of Rs 1 lakh each, it said.
“The planned murders took place just three days after the declaration of the results of the Lok Sabha elections on June 4 in which Narendra Modi and the BJP-NDA (National Democratic Alliance) came to power for the third time, although with a much-reduced majority. This has been followed by similar attacks on Muslims by Sangh Parivar criminals in several states,” the AIKS said.
The delegation included Rajya Sabha MP and AIAWU treasurer V. Sivadasan, AIKS president Ashok Dhawale and general secretary Vijoo Krishnan, among others.
They were accompanied by AIKS leaders from Uttar Pradesh.
“So far, no government officials have visited the family of Tehsim Qureshi while the sub divisional magistrate had visited the two families in Lakhnauti village. No compensation or treatment expenditure was provided to these families by either the state government of Chhattisgarh or Uttar Pradesh, both led by the BJP,” the AIKS statement said.
The AIKS also demanded a judicial inquiry and called for a law to check hate crime.
“Prime Minister Narendra Modi and Home Minister Amit Shah are directly responsible for the current wave of widespread increase of hate crimes against Muslims all over India in the post-poll scenario. The RSS (Rashtriya Swayamsevak Sangh) and its outfits constantly instigate hatred against the minorities,” the farmers’ organisation said.
“The AIKS strongly demands that the NDA Union government and Parliament enact a stringent law against mob lynching and hate crimes, establish fast track courts to expedite the trial and conviction of the lawbreakers, and protect the interests of cattle farmers, traders and workers in the cattle trade and meat industry,” it added.
The Communist Party of India-Marxist, also expressed deep concern, detailing several incidents and warning against the escalation of communal assaults after the BJP’s electoral setbacks in the Lok Sabha elections. They emphasised the BJP and Hindutva forces’ potential intensification of polarization efforts.
Meanwhile, leading Muslim bodies, Jamaat-e-Islami Hind and Jamiat Ulama-i-Hind have expressed concern at rise in targeted hate violence, including lynching following unproven allegations of cow slaughter. They have sought a statement from the Home Minister besides special laws to tackle the menace.
The Jamaat-e-Islami Hind has expressed “great concern over a disturbing rise in communal violence, lynching incidents, and demolitions across various regions of the country after the Lok Sabha elections”.
