The police had promised that the victims’ families that all 11 accused would be convicted and they will build a solid case against them. They seem to have botched up their own investigation as the main accused, Yudhishthir Sisodia, was granted bail by the district court reportedly on July 9.
Hapur: Leaving local police red-faced and exposed, the main accused in the Hapur lynching case was granted bail in less than a month after the incident was reported on June 18.
Videos showing a dying 45-year-old Qasim asking for water was circulated on June 18. He and 65-year-old Samiuddin were lynched on the suspicion of cow slaughter in Bajhera Kund village in Uttar Pradesh’s Hapur district. The police had made it out to be a road rage incident. No tools of slaughter, no flesh, now cows and no motorbike have been found in relation to the case.
The police had promised that the victims’ families that all 11 accused would be convicted and they will build a solid case against them. They seem to have botched up their own investigation as the main accused, Yudhishthir Sisodia, was granted bail by the district court reportedly on July 9.
“A person accused under section 302 (murder) of the IPC normally doesn’t get bail easily. I can’t afford to comment on the court order but we had put together the statement of the victim’s family, video footage of the incident and other corroborative evidence in the case diary,” Superintendent of Police (SP) for Hapur, Sankalp Sharma, told the media after bail was granted.
Botched investigation
“However, a close reading of Judge Renu Agarwal’s bail order, and interviews with lawyers for the prosecution and defence, suggest the police have presented differing versions of events before the court — and has offered little evidence to support these claims,” reported HuffPost.
“If the FIR is wrong, how can anything that follows from it be right?” asked Nadeem Khan, a social activist with the United Against Hate campaign, which carried out a fact-finding mission a day after the lynching. This FIR, Samiuddin’s family has maintained since the incident, was prepared under duress. “We said that we wanted justice, and the police reassured us that this would happen, and so my brother signed,” Samiuddin’s brother Mehruddin had told the media,” the report added.
The report also said that Samiuddin’s thumb impression was taken in the hospital without his knowledge. “Mehruddin (Samiuddin’s brother) has previously told the media that he had found ink on Samiuddin’s thumb when he saw him in hospital on June 18 – as if someone had taken his thumb impression on a piece of paper – but the family does not when, why or by whom. Samiuddin, Mehruddin said, did not remember giving his thumb impression,” the report added.
Speaking to The Quint, the recently-hired lawyers of Qasim’s family, Adv Shahid and Adv Javed, accused the police of hiding the real facts and trying to dilute the case. They said they will appeal to the higher authorities to transfer the investigation to CBI. “The police is not letting the real facts come in front. The crucial videos have not yet been made a part of the investigation. They are trying to dilute the case. Clearly, there is some external pressure on them,” said Adv Javed.
Yudhisthir is being falsely implicated
“Pankaj Kumar revealed that his uncle was also involved in an incident of road rage minutes before the two men were beaten up. “My uncle was coming through the fields on his bike when he got into a brawl with the Madapur men. But that was a regular scuffle. He came back home after that and minutes later got to know that these two men were being thrashed over cow slaughter suspicion,” the report by The Quint said.
“The family lawyers also claimed that 14 criminal cases, including cases of murder and attempt to murder, were pending since 2006 against Yudhisthir Sisodia. However, Sisodia’s nephew said all those cases were related to a local land dispute and had nothing to do with murder,” the report added.
Qasim’s brother will continue to fight for justice and even ask for a CBI enquiry if need be. “It is not easy to get bail in these cases. We don’t know how he was granted bail. But we will not let him go. We will go to the high court and if need be, we’ll go to the Supreme Court. We don’t want him to kill another Qasim,” he said in the report.
Complicit police?
The family sells fruits on the street and were afraid of being targeted.
“The FIR prepared by the police immediately after the incident says that Samiuddin, Qasim and Samiuddin’s brother were involved in an accident with a motorcycle, as they were going from Madurpur village to Dhaulana Tehsil via Bhaghera Khurd village. A fight ensued and the bike rider summoned 25 to 30 people who beat up Samiuddin and Qasim. The FIR states the attack was by unknown persons,” HuffPost reported.
The report also said that the police asked residents to keep quiet about the cows. A resident told HuffPost, “Three policemen came at about five in the evening and asked us to keep the cows. They came with a vehicle at about five the next morning and took them away.” Pointing to the defunct Muslim graveyard in the village, he said, “I tied the cows with my own hands right over there. They told us to never talk about this with anyone or else.”
“A fact-finding team, which visited Hapur had said in a statement that before the lynching, an announcement was made from the nearby temple allegedly asking people to gather there, as cow killers had been caught red-handed, “which is a repeat of the modus operandi adopted in the Dadri incident where Akhlaq was lynched to death for allegedly consuming beef. Police, however, say that they are not aware of any such announcement,” a report by National Herald said.