On Thursday, February 15, the administration of Kashipur in Uttarakhand’s Uddham Singh Nagar district ran a bulldozer over the house of a youth named Fardeen Mohammad, the prime accused in the recent attack on a Hindu girl in Mohalla Khalsa.
Fardeen’s house was demolished after the government discovered during the investigation that he built an unauthorized house on government land.
Speaking about the demolition, tehsildar Pankaj Chandola said the action was justified as the accused’s house was built on encroached land.
Notably, three days before the administration razed Fardeen Mohammad’s house, he and his accomplice Rauf had fatally attacked a 17-year-old minor Hindu girl named Pooja with a sharp fodder cutter, while she was on her way to her coaching class. The accused fled leaving the girl bleeding on the streets. The commuters rushed her to a nearby hospital. However, the incident was caught on the CCTV camera installed on the road which helped the police identify and arrest the accused.
A Muslim man named Fardeen attacked a Hindu girl Pooja with a fodder cutting (गंडासा) machine in Kashipur, Uttrakhand.
— Trunicle ट्रूनिकल (@trunicle) February 13, 2024
Pooja’s condition is critical. pic.twitter.com/1DU8fZ62Wj
According to reports, Fardeena and Rauf attacked the girl since she was refusing to withdraw a molestation case that she and her family members had previously lodged against Fardeen. Fardeen had been arrested in the molestation case and was out on bail when he attacked Pooja.
Reportedly, after the attack, Fardeen’s family members visited Pooja’s house and threatened her parents to withdraw the molestation case filed against their son.
Upon learning about the attack, members of various Hindu organisations reached the police station and demanded swift action against the perpetrators. The police, in turn, filed a case against the duo and arrested them.
The incident
The incident took place in the Khalsa locality of Kashipur Kotwali area of Udham Singh Nagar at around 4.15 pm on Monday (February 12, 2024). Pooja along with her sisters were going to their tuition class when Fardeen and Rauf arrived on a bike. Fardeen dragged Pooja and forced her to sit on his bike, but she resisted his attempts by pushing him aside. Pooja and her sisters moved on but the duo kept following them on the bike and when the girls reached the Gurudwara near the powerhouse in Mohalla PakkaKot, Fardeen attacked Pooja on her head with a sharp knife generally used to cut fodder. Pooja was badly injured in the attack.
Fardeen’s family members stood and watched him attack the victim
Notably, when Fardeen launched the attack on Pooja, his father Rizwan and his brothers Bilal, Aaqib, Anas and Afridi were also standing there but none of them stopped Fardeen from attacking the girl. Several people passing by rushed to the scene hearing Pooja scream in pain. Seeing people gather, Fardeen and Rauf threatened the victim and fled the scene.
The girl was rushed to a nearby hospital in a critical condition from where she was referred to LD Bhatt Sub District Hospital. After receiving information about the attack, members of several Hindu organizations reached the police station and demanded the arrest of the accused. BJP MLA Arvind Pandey also met the victim and assured her justice.
#काशीपुर, जनपद उधम सिंह नगर के अंतर्गत कटोरा ताल निवासी युवती पर हुए जानलेवा हमले की सूचना का संज्ञान लिया। काशीपुर अस्पताल में युवती एवं उसके परिवार जनों से मुलाकात कर युवती का हाल-चाल जाना तथा स्वास्थ्य की जानकारी ली।
— Arvind Pandey (@TheArvindPandey) February 12, 2024
@NarendraModi | @AmitShah | @JPNadda | @BLSanthosh pic.twitter.com/NQt1L2zC91
Accused’s kin threatened the victim’s family
Following the attack, Fardeen’s family members and relatives, including his mother Baby, maternal uncles Taju and Firoz, three aunts and another relative named Sahil, reached the victim’s home where they threatened her parents and pressured them to withdraw the molestation cases registered against Fardeen.
Notably, Fardeen had been harassing the victim for the last four years. Based on the complaint of her parents, the police registered three cases of molestation and harassment against Fardeen in 2019, 2021, and 2022 respectively. In fact, Fardeen had also gone to jail, but this did not deter him from harassing the victim. He was out on bail when he attacked the victim.
The police have, meanwhile, registered a case against Fardeen under IPC sections 147, 307, 323, 354, 452, 504 and 506. Speaking to OpIndia, Senior Sub Inspector Pradeep Mishra posted at the Kotwali said that both the main accused have been arrested. Investigation in the case is underway and other arrests will also be made soon.
