Local police have arrested six persons — Sanjoy Das, Nikhil Das, Tulendra Das, Uttam Chakrabarty, Jayanta Chakrabarty and Sanandhu Majumdar under Section 302 of the Indian Penal Code. The police also said a seventh person will also be arrested under the same section of the IPC.
Team Clarion
NEW DELHI — A mentally unstable Muslim youth was brutally lynched on suspicion of cow theft in Assam’s Hojai district earlier this week.
The news of the death of Hifjur Rahman was conveyed to his younger brother, Imrul Hoque, by the superintendent of police of Assam’s Hojai district on Sunday.
The 23-year-old rushed to Nagaon Civil Hospital and found that his brother had died from injuries sustained during a “brutal, inhuman beating,” reports reaching here said on Tuesday.
Hoque said his brother could have been anything because he was a person with a mental health condition but not a thief.
“He (Rahman) would ask for money from people and from shops, but never touch a thing to eat,” Imrul was quoted as saying.
Local police have arrested six persons — Sanjoy Das, Nikhil Das, Tulendra Das, Uttam Chakrabarty, Jayanta Chakrabarty and Sanandhu Majumdar under Section 302 of the Indian Penal Code. The police also said a seventh person will also be arrested under the same section of the IPC.
On 12 August, Rahman from Jayantia Basti in the Islam Nagar area entered a Hindu-dominated village — Bamungaon in the Lanka area — of the Hojai district. Somehow, Rahman got rounded up by Hindu residents on suspicion of stealing cows. Locals from Bamungaon village had informed that there had been some incidents of cow theft in the area and they were keeping a vigil.
The vigilante party of the village had beaten Rahman before informing the police. A local police official from the Lanka police station said that they received information about the incident at around 2:40 a.m. Sunday and rushed to the spot.
The police then recovered a seriously injured Rahman and took him to a local hospital, where was declared dead, the police claimed.
Locals from Bamungaon also claimed that Rahman was caught red-handed stealing cows, an assertion outrightly discarded by the victim’s family.
“Everybody knew that he (Rahman) was a mentally unstable person. He used to roam all around the district. Sometimes he would go out of home for days before being found. You can see him trying to ask for something to eat. How can sensible men not see the mentally deranged person and kill him”, said Hoque as he shared his brother’s video, which clearly shows his condition.
Rahman had been missing from home for around 10–12 days this time.
“This time he will never return home. Seeing the injuries and his body, I felt that he was killed at the spot where he was beaten.”
“If there was cow theft and they caught him red-handed, they should have handed him over to the police. The police would have sent him to jail if he had committed a crime. He was not an animal to be beaten like this to death,” the brother was quoted as saying.
“If you just had one look at him, you would understand that he has a mental health condition.”
The local police official from Lanka station said that there were instances of cow theft and that a goat thief was arrested a few days ago.
But “no FIR or complaint was filed in the last week about any cow theft,” the policeman said.
On 25 July, another Muslim youth was also lynched on suspicion of cow theft in central Assam’s Morigaon district. Saddam Hussein, along with his brother Anarul Hoque and four other fellow villagers, were stopped at a Hindu-dominated village and attacked.
While three men managed to escape the mob with small injuries, Saddam was lynched, and Bilal and Nijarul Hoque sustained grave injuries. Nirajul has since recovered enough to move back home, but Bilal has been frequenting the hospital.
