Arbitrary Deprivation of Life

IPT 2.2 | April 2023 | Section 1
Attacks on minorities leading to loss of life have continued by both state actors, and non-state actors, without due process of law and justice for victims.  

Deaths of Muslim men due to custodial torture or extra judicial killings by state actors have continued: 

As have a spate of lynchings by private Hindu vigilantes resulting in the deaths of Muslim men, accused under anti-cow slaughter laws, which prohibit the sale, slaughter of cattle in varied degrees in 20 out of India’s 28 states.  

He had been picked by Medak police from Hyderabad on January 27th. He was arrested on allegations of theft and beaten brutally while in custody. He succumbed to his injuries in a hospital. In a video testimony recorded before his death, Qadeer describes his torture included being hung in the police station and beaten, and has named police officers who were involved in his torture. After protests from the family following his demise, police claim to have initiated an inquiry.  

Alam had been accused of murder along with 5 others, arrested and according to the police, taken to the incident area to recover items related to the murder, when he allegedly tried to flee leading to the police shooting him down. Since BJP’s Himanta Biswa Sarma has become the Chief Minister of Assam in May 2021, at least 57 people have been killed in police shootings, with a disproportionate number of them being Muslim or from indigenous groups. A Public Interest Litigation challenging the violations of Supreme Court guidelines on encounter (extra judicial killings) by the Assam police, and the tardy response of the State and National Human Rights Commissions is still in the works.  

He had been arrested on a drug peddling case when at a checkpoint a brown sugar like substance was allegedly recovered from the vehicle he was in, along with others. The cause of death provided by police is cardiac arrest, with the hospital declaring him dead on arrival.

The body of Abdul Rashid Dar, a 33-year-old Kashmiri man who had been picked up by the army from his home on 15th December 2022, was handed over to his family after nearly 3 months of the family trying to ascertain his whereabouts. After he was detained from his home on December 15th, the family began asking about him with the Army and Police unable to provide a clear answer. On December 22nd, authorities released a statement  that Dar had gone missing, after fleeing from their custody. Police claim that he was arrested for questioning in connection with a militancy case, when he managed to flee. Dar was the main wage earner for his immediate family, and drove a minivan hiring out tents and selling shawls. 

https://twitter.com/javnaikoo/status/1631198692291280896?s=20

On January 28th, Waris (22) was allegedly lynched by cow vigilantes in Haryana’s Nuh district on suspicions on smuggling cattle. His family allege that Waris and two others, Nafis and Shaukeen, were being chased by cow vigilantes when their car hit a tempo. In videos circulating on social media of the incident, Waris is seen alive after the incident, hinting at his murder after. His family was informed of the death over 6 hours after the incident, and allege that he was beaten to death by cow vigilantes during the time. Haryana Police have recorded his death as a motor accident, and have also registered a case against Waris, Nafis and Shaukeen for the accident and under the state’s cow protection laws. In videos of the lynching circulating online, Monu (a local leader of Bajrang Dal) and other Bajrang Dal members can be seen beating the three men in the presence of police. Shaukeen who survived the assault has also named Monu in a statement and accused him and others of torturing them. Waris’s autopsy report cites injuries caused to his abdominal cavity due to use of blunt forces, as the cause of death. While the victims have been charged with violating Haryana’s cow protection law (Haryana Gauvansh Sanrakshan and Gausamvardhan Act, 2015), the police is refusing to record a complaint against the Bajrang Dal group or consider them alleged perpetrators in the case. Nuh, the district of Haryana where the incident occurred is predominantly populated by Muslims, and has a 94% acquittal rate under the state’s cow protection law. Despite the abysmal conviction rate, since 2015, almost one case every second day has been registered under the said law.  

Nasir and Junaid, two Muslim men from Rajasthan were kidnapped, lynched and set ablaze by a Hindutva mob accusing them of cow smuggling in neighbouring Haryana’s Bhiwani district on February 16th. Local Bajrang Dal leader Mohit Yadav alias Monu Maneswar who has a sizeable social media following where he makes regular inciteful content, has been named an accused in the case registered by the Police after much pressure from victims. In their investigations, the Rajasthan police have said that at least two vigilante groups were involved and they kept moving the injured Nasir and Junaid in their car across Haryana for more than 15 hours before setting the men and the car to fire. Further investigations have also revealed that the car used to abduct the victims belonged to the Haryana government. Vishwa Hindu Parishad (World Hindu Council), Bajrang Dal and other Hindutva organisations took out a rally in support of the accused, who at the time of writing this report, was absconding with the police still searching for him. Monu Maneswar has in the past been photographed with senior BJP politicians, including central Home Minister Mr. Amit Shah. There have also been anti-Muslim mahapanchayats (village and town gatherings) in neighbouring Palwal and Gurugram districts in Haryana in favour of the accused. Meanwhile, notices have been served to family members of the deceased, along with a journalist and local residents, who have been protesting against the murders in Rajasthan’s Bharatpur. The Sub Divisional Magistrate has issued these under section 107, while allows for preventive arrests against people likely to disturb public peace.  

Idrees Pasha (39), an assistant driver of a cattle transport vehicle, was lynched to death by Hindutva assailants in Karnataka’s Ramanagara district on March 31st. According to reports, Pasha’s body was found hours after he, along with Irfan (37) and driver Syed Zaheer (40), was allegedly waylaid by the alleged perpetrator Hindutva activist Punith Kerehalli and his associates near Santemala Circle while transporting around 15 cattle in a vehicle. The accused demanded INR 2 Lakhs (USD 2440) from the victims. Although Zaheer tried to explain to Kerehalli and four others that the cattle were purchased, they were still assaulted by the Hindutva men. The police reached the spot and both groups were taken to the police station where Kerehalli filed a complaint against the men under cow protection laws. A counter complaint was also filed against him. However, Pasha’a dead body bearing marks of torture, presumably from a stun gun, was discovered the next morning. The main accused, Punith Keheralli, has a social media presence with videos of him accosting Muslim men, similar to Monu Manesar, along with connections with BJP party members. He also posted videos a few days prior to the incident with a stun gun.  

He was tied to a pole and beaten to death over for alleged theft on April 7th in Ranchi, Jharkhand. The victim’s father said that the accusation was false and the villagers were unable to show anything that Wajid had stolen. Jharkhand was the fourth state after Bengal, Manipur and Rajasthan to pass a bill against mob lynching. The bill, passed in December 2021, is awaiting the President’s consent. 

His body discovered on April 9th , with a police report on the murder claiming that village locals killed him after he was caught stealing chickpeas. However, the victim’s relatives claim that the killing was carried out by a former village headman and his followers, who beat him to death upon learning he was a Muslim. The body was found in a drainage channel with multiple stab wounds and bruises. 

Muslims in Haryana have been living under the constant fear of such attacks by Hindu vigilante groups, which have support of state authorities. In 2021 the Haryana state set up a special cow protection task force. Under the scheme, private Gaurakshaks (cow protection force) work closely with Haryana state police to identify and apprehend suspected cattle smugglers and hand them over to the police. This nexus between state and private vigilantes gave Hindu extremist groups a free hand to stop and search any vehicle, and attack Muslims and circulate the videos online. It also allows the state to reverse culpability, as victims are embroiled in cases under the cow-protection laws, whilst perpetrators face no criminal action. 

Similar trends of vigilante attacks have been observed from other states, with Bihar witnessing a number of lynchings between January to March: 

On February 16th, Mohammad Khalil Alam (34) was lynched to death by a mob in Bihar’s Samastipur district. A video of the lynching was recorded by the attackers and shared across social media. In the video, while the attackers cannot be seen, they are heard asking Mohammad about the locations where cows are slaughtered, and whether his children eat beef. His body was found two days later, by the banks of a river. One of the accused arrested is Vipul Kumar, with the family also alleging that Alam was kidnapped and a ransom was demanded by the family. The video of the killing was uploaded by a social media user named Anurag Jha, along with a caption: ‘Request Hindu brothers to share it as much as possible so that those who loot the poor and eat cows be afraid and no one dare to touch the ‘cow mother’. While the police is looking for Kumar’s accomplices, no action has been taken against Jha  The police have also recorded the crime as motivated by money based on statements by the accused arrested, and not as a hate crime as demanded by the family. 

On February 25th, Mohammad Faiyaz (45), another Muslim man was beaten to death by a group of men in Bihar’s Samastipur district. The victim’s family allege that a villager Mahendra Paswan had tied Faiyaz, who suffered from a mental health condition, in his house. According to the victim’s brother, he had gone to Paswan’s house to collect his wages. But Paswan and his accomplices tortured and beat Faiyaz, resulting in his death at the hospital.  

Abbas Ansari, a Muslim man from the East Champaran district of Bihar was lynched to death in another such incident in the state in March.  

On February 22nd, Mohammad Babar (28) was lynched to death in Bihar’s Gaya district. Two other Muslim men, Sajid and Rakhmuddeen, were also assaulted and left in critical condition. According to a local witness, the three men were apprehended by villagers stopped at a small bridge near Diha village and accused of theft while they were returning home from a feast in another village.  It is being alleged by the villagers that the men were carrying weapons. They were later handed over to police, who took them to the hospital. However, Babar was  aged 28, died as a result of his injuries.   

On March 7th, Naseem Qureshi (47), a resident of Bihar’s Siwan district, was lynched to death when a mob attacked him for allegedly carrying beef. His nephew, Firoz Qureshi, who was also beaten in the incident managed to survive by escaping. According to his statement: “While entering the village on our bike we saw the village sarpanch [village council head] and a few youth alongside him. He [sarpanch] told them we were carrying beef and asked them to beat us,”. Naseem died on his way to the hospital after the attack. Three persons have been arrested for murder. But the incident has not been recorded as a hate crime. Firoz also alleges that when he went to the police station to ask about his uncle’s whereabouts after the incident, he was subjected by police to verbal abuse.  

Authorities have been silent on these incidents.