A day after mob violence broke out in Bulandshahr, leading to the deaths of a police inspector and a civilian, the police arrested four Muslim men, accusing them of cow slaughter. Now the Uttar Pradesh police have said that Sajid, Sarfuddin, Asif and Nanhe are innocent, and have picked up three more people.
The four men who were arrested almost two weeks ago have been in custody since then, and reports say their families are also suffering.
According to Sabir, Sajid’s father, his family had left Siyana village of Bulandshahr more than a decade ago. The Indian Express quoted Sabir as saying, “We kept on saying that he (Sajid) wasn’t even present during the killings. The police did not pay heed. I have spent more than Rs 50,000 in the last two weeks on food, lodging and transport to visit the jail and police station multiple times. Even today, my cousin had to borrow Rs 800 on my behalf to sponsor the visit. This entire ordeal has set us back by six months. Our businesses have stopped.”
Bajrang Dal activist Yogesh Raj, the prime accused in the case of mob violence which led to the deaths of a police inspector and a civilian, had lodged a complaint accusing seven Muslims of cow slaughter. Sajid, Sarfuddin, Asif and Nanhe were arrested based on Raj’s complaint.
Two of the seven were minor boys, who were also kept at the police station for a few hours before being released. The police have been unable to locate Raj till now.
Sarfuddin’s wife Bano told the newspaper that while they live in the Naya Bans village, her husband runs a tailoring shop in Siyana village. Sarfuddin being in jail meant that the money he earned from his tailoring shop to run the family was not coming in anymore. To add to that, the family had to shell out money for the lawyers and visiting him in prison.
The three people arrested on Tuesday — Nadeem, Raees and Kala — were not even named in the complaint filed by Raj.
While the police in Uttar Pradesh continue to enthusiastically solve the alleged cow slaughter case, there has been little headway in the case of mob violence that resulted in the death of a police officer and a civilian.
Raj, who is the prime accused in the mob violence case, is on the run. An FIR against 27 named people and 50-60 unidentified people was registered at the Siyana police station for the violence at Chingrawathi police post after cattle carcasses were found in the nearby Mahaw village of the district.
Read the entire report by The Indian Express here.