A 23-year old Muslim youth was shot dead by the Uttar Pradesh police recently, another young man was injured with gunshot wounds in the Patwai area of Rampur district. Police allege that the two, 23-year-old Sajid Qureshi and his associate, Babloo were en route to slaughter a cow, according to Maktoob Media.
Both were from Moradabad, and were travelling in a car when the police attempted to pull them over. The situation became volatile when the driver evaded the police according to news reports, leading to the driver losing control, and causing the vehicle to overturn in a field along the roadside. Following this, reports suggest that the two men emerged from the overturned car and allegedly opened fire on the police officers. In response, the police returned fire, which resulted in both men sustaining gunshot wounds. While Sajid is now dead, Babloo is recovering from a bullet injury to his leg and is receiving medical treatment. The police claim to have recovered a car, two country made weapons, cartridges, an electronic weighing machine, and tools used for slaughtering from the scene.
A case has been reportedly filed against the accused under the provisions of IPC Section 307, pertaining to attempted murder, and the Arms Act. The Indian Express has reported that as per authorities, this area has witnessed multiple instances of cow slaughter.
A similar incident was reported by Sabrang India from September, where a young Muslim man hailing from Shahjahanpur in Uttar Pradesh, was shot dead by the police while being transported to a local court. According to the UP Police, they assert that the shooting occurred in self-defence as the suspect allegedly attempted to escape custody and open fire on the police.
Official government data by Uttar Pradesh had revealed earlier this year a total of 10,713 encounters have taken place in the state since 2017. Among these staggering records of custodial deaths, the Meerut Police stands out with the highest count, conducting 3,152 encounters, resulting in the death of 63 criminals and the arrest of 1,708 individuals. Agra Police follows closely behind, having committed 1,844 encounters. Within these encounters, 14 criminals were killed and 4,654 were arrested, about 55 police personnel sustained injuries, as communicated in an official press release from the Uttar Pradesh government.
Furthermore, in 2020, the National Campaign against Torture (NCAT) released its report titled India: Annual Report on Torture 2019 recording the reported instances of custodial torture and violence. The report stipulated that a staggering 1,731 individuals were dead in custody in 2019, which can be summed up to amounting to about five deaths daily. About 1,606 deaths occurred in judicial custody and 125 in police custody. The report further noted with gravity that these figures only barely scratch the surface of the true number and extent pof custodial death and torture in the country.
According to Muslim Mirror, Paritosh Chakma, Director of NCAT noted that out of the 125 deaths in police custody, 60% of the victims were from impoverished and marginalised communities. This group of 60% included 13 victims from Dalit and tribal communities, and 15 from the Muslim minority community. Not only that, there were about 37 fatal victims who were detained for minor offences such as theft, burglary, cheating, illegal liquor selling, and gambling, indicating a correlation with their economic status.
The report noted that Uttar Pradesh was the state with the highest number of police custody deaths, followed by Tamil Nadu and Punjab.
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