From the 24th of February to the 26th of February, Delhi burnt with massive communal riots that were a direct consequence of the sabre-rattling by Islamist mobs. One of the first Hindu casualties was constable Ratan Lal, who was mercilessly killed by Islamist mobs. The chargesheet filed by Special Investigation Team of Delhi Police in the murder of Ratan Lal and deadly attacks by rioters on IPS Amit Sharma and IPS Anuj Kumar mentions at least 17 accused.
There are about 4 to 5 key conspirators in the entire case, which includes Salim Khan, Salim Munna and Shadab. The police stated that the riots were engineered in Delhi through a conspiracy to malign the image of the country. Interestingly, DS Bindra, who was hailed by the media as a messiah serving food to anti-CAA protestors was also named as one of the instigators of the riots that led to the murder of Ratan Lal.
Ratan Lal was mercilessly lynched by a crazed Islamist mob while he was trying to do his duty on main Wazirabad Road, Chand Bagh. The mob had come prepared for a riot according to the charge sheet. In the chargesheet, as reported earlier, it is mentioned that the agencies collected live cartridges and even used cartridges along with petrol bombs and Molotov cocktails from the rooftop of a rickshaw shop in the vicinity as well. Several bricks and stones were also collected for examination.
The video that had emerged at the time of an Islamist mob mercilessly lynching Ratan Lal had left the nation shocked. The rage and the coordination of the mob were rather evident from the video. It was reported at the time that the police had essentially gone to speak to the mob, pacify them and ask them not to continue with their illegal march, and it was then that they were attacked.
With the chargesheet being filed in the murder of Ratan Lal, a chilling fact has come to the fore. During the perusal of the chargesheet, OpIndia noticed that several witnesses who were examined by the authorities attested to the fact that before Ratan Lal was lynched to death by the Islamist mob, another police officer was held hostage by the mob.
Two police inspectors who were beat officers in the area and were responsible for maintaining law and order in the area after the mob had decided to take out an illegal march in protest of the CAA have given their statements where these facts are mentioned explicitly.
The chargesheet says that Salim Munna, one of the main accused, was already telling Muslims congregated in the area to “show their might”. Before the murder of Ratan Lal, the statements of the two police officers say that the mob was already armed with sticks and rods. On the instruction of ACP Anuj Kumar, two police officers, who are the witnesses giving their statement, in this case, went in the tent of the protest site to speak to Salim Munna so the crowd build-up could be stopped. The police officers had gone there to tell the protestors to meet with the ACP and speak to him.
However, the two officers were held captive by the crowd and managed to escape with great difficulty.
A Muslim victim had also testified to the same hostage situation. His witness statement is also attached in the chargesheet.
The witness statement clearly says that the constables who had been sent in the tent to talk to the protestors were surrounded by the angry and agitated rioters and had escaped only later.
In December 2019, when riots had broken out in various parts of the country by Islamist mobs, a similar incident had taken place.
In Meerut, the police had received a tip-off that things could turn ugly during one of the protests on a Friday. Soon after the Friday prayers, a crowd of people wearing black bands came out from the Jama Masjid at around 2 pm to protest against the enactment of the Citizenship Amendment Bill. When police tried to stop them, they started chanting slogans against the police after which the police lathi-charged them. After that, 15-20 miscreants reached the Lisadi gate intersection and started creating ruckus there. As the crowd kept swelling, the protestors started throwing stones at the police forces.
DM and SSP reached the spot as bullet started flying from both sides. On Hapur road, where around 25-30 RAF police trainees were deployed, realising that the police deployment is less, the agitating crowd shifted there, vandalising scores of vehicles and pelting stones against the law enforcement personnel. To protect themselves from the stone pelting, the trainee policemen took shelter inside a shop, but they were taken hostage by the violent protestors inside the shop by shutting down the shutters. The mob also tried to torch the shop, but was unable to do so.
The trapped policemen called their seniors, and a police force from Nauchandi police station reached the spot, but their vehicles were also stopped and they were attacked with stoned by the protesters. After that, the police opened fire on the mob, and eventually rescued the trapped RAF soldiers and brought the spiralling situation under control.
With this precedent, it is evident that the constables who were stuck in the tent, right before Ratan Lal was murdered by the same mob, were in an extremely precarious position. Soon after, the same mob mercilessly murdered constable Ratan Lal and grievously injured several others.
