On Wednesday, 19 June in Dilari, Uttar Pradesh, a 54-year-old Gangaram was beaten up and killed by a Muslim mob after he had complained to the police about his daughter’s abduction.
As reported by Amar Ujala, Gangaram of Pipili Umarpur had accused his neighbour’s son of the abduction. However, it was later found out that the minor girl was kidnapped by another person named Nadeem. The girl has been found and Nadeem has been arrested after relatives staged a protest, blocking a road.
Gangaram’s 15-year-old daughter had gone missing about three days ago. After the complaint was filed, the police did not take any further action following which the SSP had suspended station chief Deepak Kumar for negligence.
As per reports, Gangaram had complained to the police alleging that Danish, his neighbour Safayat Hussein’s son, had kidnapped his daughter. On hearing about the complaint, several relatives of Danish went to Gangaram’s house. They allegedly then beat Gangaram and his family up with sticks for wrongly accusing Danish of the crime. Gangaram was badly injured. His relatives took him to a nearby hospital but he was declared dead by the doctors.
The next day, after the post mortem, angry relatives of Gangaram placed his body on a road, blocking the traffic and they proceeded to shout slogans against police inaction. Members of the Hindu Raksha Dal had also joined the protests demanding swift action by the police. The protests were curbed only after police arrested Safayat Hussain, Danish, Chhotu and another person named Akram for beating Gangaram to death. Reports say that Gangaram’s wife and son have also sustained serious injuries.
There are also some media reports which have claimed that Gangaram was attacked and killed because he had objected to his Muslim neighbour’s advances towards his daughter. However, as reported by Amarujala, police claim to have found that the girl was abducted by another person named Nadeem. Nadeem is now in police custody.
Following this incident, tension prevailed between the Hindu and Muslim communities in the area. Taking cognisance of the communally sensitive issue, extra forces have been deployed in the village.
