A 15-year-old student of 9th standard, Ghulam Mohammed, was found hanging in a village in the Majalgaon taluka of the Beed district on Tuesday, April 18, 2023. As soon as the news spread, Islamists on social media held Hindu outfits responsible for his death, as it was revealed that he earlier had a scuffle with three Hindus over trespassing and picking up firewood from their farm. However, the Beed police have confirmed that there is no communal angle involved in this incident.
Once the news broke out, Islamists online alleged that this was a communal incident and started blaming Hindu groups for it.
Ahmed Khabeer of Jamia Times tweeted, “15-year-old boy “Hafiz Murtaza Shaikh” had gone with his sister to fetch fuel wood when a Hindutva group surrounded them & started thrashing them. The sister ran towards home for help, and when she returned, she found the brother’s body hanging on a tree.”
15 year old boy “Hafiz Murtaza Shaikh” had gone with his sister to fetch fuel wood when Hinduvta group surrounded them & started thrashing them. The sister ran towards home for help, when she returned, she found the brothers body hanging on a tree pic.twitter.com/ULe8h1BF0R
— Ahmed Khabeer احمد خبیر (@AhmedKhabeer_) April 18, 2023
Other Twitter users, like the propagandist Ashok Swain also joined in to blame “Hindu supremacists” for the death.
Another Muslim boy has been killed by a gang of Hindu supremacists in Maharashtra, India. pic.twitter.com/mcWk0iIV32
— Ashok Swain (@ashoswai) April 18, 2023
However, police have dismissed all such reports of a communal angle to the unfortunate death.
According to reports, the deceased boy Gulam Mohammed Hafiz Murtaza Shaikh had gone to pick firewood. He was accompanied by his sister. As he was trespassing on the farm of Kailash Dake, he was allegedly caught by Kailash Dake and Mahadev Dake. The father of the deceased has said in his complaint that these two youths were also accompanied by one Hanumant Wankhede.
As the three started beating the deceased for trespassing, Ghulam Mohammed asked his sister to run away. She then called her father only to find the dead body of the deceased hanging from the neem tree on the spot. However, Murtaza Sheikh said in his complaint that he saw the accused trio hanging his son to the tree.
The police have arrested the three accused in this case. It was also revealed that six months ago, Kailash Dake had a scuffle with Ghulam Mohammed who would frequently attempt to trespass on Dake’s farm. The father of the deceased has also alleged that Kailash Dake had threatened the deceased boy at that time by saying that he will be killed if he is seen around again.
The complaint was filed at the Majalgaon rural police station. According to a report by Mid Day, the incident prima facie appears to be of suicide because there are no other injury marks on the dead body to show that he had a scuffle with the three arrested accused before getting estranged.
Assistant Police Inspector Annarao Khodewad said, “We have arrested the three accused on the charges of murder. After being produced before the court, they have been remanded in two days of police custody.” Giving details of the primary investigations, he added, “A few days ago, the victim and accused had a scuffle, after the victim’s cow strayed into the latter’s farm and ate some crop. Learning about this, elders from both families and some villagers intervened, and no complaint was lodged with the police.”
B Dheeraj Kumar is the assistant SP of the Majalgaon division in the Beed district. He said, “The provisional autopsy report concluded that the boy died of hanging and a final opinion is reserved. This case is limited to friction between the two youths or their families.”
Nand Kumar Thakur is the SP of the Beed district. He said, “The police will initiate action against anyone spreading rumours about the incident and giving it a communal colour.”
