A 26-year-old migrant from West Bengal was beaten to death and another person was injured by cow vigilantes in Haryana’s Charkhi Dadri earlier this week, over suspicions that they had eaten beef. Five people have been arrested and two juveniles in conflict with law have been detained on charges of being involved with the attack.
According to the First Information Report, on the morning of August 27, a group of young men came to Sabir, a scrap dealer living in a slum area near Badhra village, and took him to the local bus stand claiming that they had some scrap to dispose. The accused also called another migrant, Assam native Asiruddin, to the bus stand and allegedly beat up the duo there. When passers-by intervened, they took the two to some other location on their motorcycles. Mr. Sabir was later found dead near a canal in Bhandwa village. Mr. Asiruddin was found dumped at another location and is currently under treatment in hospital.
Mr. Sabir is survived by his wife and two-year-old daughter.
Video of attack
Charkhi Dadri Superintendent of Police Pooja Vashisth told The Hindu over phone that the accused were members of a cow vigilante gang and had beaten up the victims because they suspected that they had eaten beef. Ms. Vashisth said the people who intervened when the gang was beating up the duo had made a video of the attack, but did not report it to the police.
The accused have been identified as Abhishek, Ravinder, Mohit, Kamaljeet, and Sahil.
‘Strictest possible punishment’
Mr. Sabir’s brother-in-law Sujauddin, the complainant in the case, said that he, along with his father and sister’s family had lived in the slum area for the last five years, but had never faced any such trouble before. Mr. Sujauddin, 20, and his father were returning home after a morning of rag-picking work when the vigilante gang confronted them, saying that they ate beef, and took them to Badhra police station.
“I was at the police station when I got a call from my sister saying that some men had come and taken along her husband on pretext of selling some scrap. I reported it to the police immediately. He was later found dead near a canal,” said Mr. Sujauddin, who has returned to his native village to perform the last rites for Mr. Sabir. He demanded the strictest possible punishment for the accused, saying that he wanted justice for his brother-in-law.
