New Delhi: A court in Uttar Pradesh, while sentencing 10 Hindu men to life imprisonment for lynching a Muslim goat trader in Hapur in 2018 after fabricated rumours of cow slaughter, significantly also pulled up the state police for lapses and negligence in the investigation of the case and recommended action against the concerned officers.
Additional district and sessions judge Shweta Dixit in her 157-page judgment, a copy of which is with The Wire, described the mob lynching of goat trader Qasim (45) as a “heinous” crime. The behaviour of the mob in the Hapur case, in which an “innocent” man was murdered, was a “warning” and “threat” to the entire society, she said.
Meanwhile, Qasim’s brother Saleem, while talking to The Wire, said he hopes that the conviction in the case would serve as “an example” in preventing “acts of mob lynching” in the country, especially in the name of the cow. “This is why we requested the court to not hang them but put them in jail for life. So that they learn a lesson,” said Saleem, who sells fruits from a cart to earn a livelihood.
The court on March 12 found four points of negligence from the investigator and other police personnel involved in the case. First, the court noted that the investigating officer of the case did not carry an identification parade of the accused despite directions by the Supreme Court that the investigation of the case be supervised by a senior IPS officer, the Inspector General of Police Meerut Range. A survivor of the violent attack and main witness, Samaydeen, had filed a writ petition in the apex court seeking an identification parade of the accused but despite the relief provided by the court in 2018, the investigator did not conduct it.
Second, the judge observed that a compact disc (CD) which showed one of the main accused, Rakesh, bragging about the crime in a sting operation carried out by television channel NDTV, was found broken.
The judge admitted Rakesh’s extra-judicial confession made to the television channel as corroborative evidence to strengthen the prosecution case. However, Judge Dixit stated that it was “extremely objectionable” that the CD, filed as evidence, was not kept safe. The judge also found the police investigating officer guilty of negligence for not submitting a necessary certificate of a CD, which carried a video of the mob lynching incident, along with the chargesheet to make it admissible as evidence. Saleem had received the video of his brother’s lynching on his phone.
Investigator Laxman Verma had admitted a CD of the video as a witness exhibit but did not obtain the necessary certificate under Section 65 B of the Indian Evidence Act and submit it with the chargesheet to the make CB admissible as evidence, noted the judge. A third lapse involved the police not sending a lathi (stick) used in the crime and recovered from an accused, Karanpal, to the Forensic Science Laboratory for testing of blood and fingerprints. The fourth point on which the court pulled up the police was the allegation by the complainant Yasin, survivor Samaydeen’s brother, that the FIR lodged in the case on the day of the crime on June 16, 2018 under his signature was drafted under police pressure and was based on false information.
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While the initial FIR stated that the incident had taken place as a result of a motorbike accident, Yasin and Samaydeen later claimed that the FIR had been written under police pressure and stated that the incident of a motorbike accident was fabricated.
Qasim and Samaydeen had been brutally assaulted over false rumours of cow slaughter and did not suffer injuries in a motorbike accident, the victims said. This was upheld by the court in its verdict.
Judge Dixit said it was necessary to investigate the negligence of the police officers in the investigation of the case and that action be taken against the concerned persons. The judge said that a letter in this regard be written to the Director General of Police, UP and a copy of the verdict be sent to him for action.
Almost six years after Qasim was murdered and Samaydeen was left grievously injured by the violent mob, the court on March 12 convicted 10 persons and sentenced them to life imprisonment. The men convicted for the crime were Yudhisthir, Rakesh, Kanu, Sonu, Mangeram, Rinku, Hariom, Manish, Lalit and Karanpal. An 11th accused was a minor.
Qasim was among the most prominent victims of state-induced hate crimes in the name of cow slaughter in UP after the infamous Dadri incident in 2015 when a Muslim man named Mohammad Akhlaq was beaten to death over rumours of killing a cow. Qasim was beaten to death near the fields of Bajhera Khurd village under Pilkhuwa police station in Hapur on June 16, 2018. All the accused belonged to the Bajhera Khurd village, while Qasim, who had gone to the rural area to purchase goats to sell later in markets as part of his living, resided in Pilkhuwa town. Samaydeen lived in Madapur-Mustafabad village, close to the crime scene.
Samaydeen’s testimony, as survivor and witness to the crime, proved to be among the clinching factors on which the accused were convicted beyond doubt. Judge Dixit convicted the 10 men for murder, attempt to murder, rioting with deadly weapon and promoting enmity between groups on the basis of religion (in this case) and also fined them Rs 58,000 each. The court held them guilty for acting with a common intent.
On the said day in 2018, Samaydeen and his neighbour Hasan were smoking bidis in their farm where they had gone to gather fodder for cattle, when they saw a mob chase Qasim towards them. Samaydeen intervened and asked the mob why were they assaulting Qasim. However, Samaydeen said, the mob turned on him as well and started hitting him with lathis, kicks and punches. In his testimony, Samaydeen said he was also subjected to communal slurs. Hasan, fearing for his life, escaped from the spot. He would later become eyewitness number two for the prosecution.
While beating him and Qasim, Samaydeen said the members of the mob were shouting, “They are Muslim, they slaughter cows. Kill them. Don’t spare them.” He said his pleas that there were no signs of any cow being slaughtered or instrument to indicate it, fell on deaf ears. “From our head to heel, there was not an inch of the body left where they did not hit us,” said Samaydeen, who spent many days in two different hospitals recovering from a cracked head, fractures in both arms and a leg, injured ribs, ruptured ears and multiple abrasions.
Qasim, who was brutally assaulted, was declared dead in a hospital. According to his post-mortem report, the cause of death was shock and haemorrhage as a result of multiple ante-mortem injuries.
The court dismissed the claim by the accused persons that Qasim died due to injuries suffered in a motorbike accident. The nature of his injuries, which included multiple contusions on the back and abdomen, lacerated wounds including one on the leg that was bone deep, broken bones in hand and forearm and injuries to the head, proved that he did not die of an accident, said the judge.
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Significantly, the judge noted that during the entire investigation, there was no mention of a motorcycle owner or number plate of the alleged motorcycle.
The victim side had raised questions on the investigation in the case from the very beginning. It was only after they approached the Supreme Court that on its directions Yasin’s statement, in which he said that his initial complaint was written under police pressure, was recorded in August 2018.
The incident had brought widespread condemnation for the state police on the day of the crime itself when three policemen were photographed leading a mob as it dragged away the bloodied body of Qasim, probably still alive, soon after the violence. The police issued an apology for the conduct of its personnel – an inspector and two constables – but clarified that Qasim was dragged on the ground “because of the non-availability of an ambulance at that moment,” and that he was later rushed to a hospital in an emergency van.
While the families of Samaydeen and Qasim are happy with the conviction and said justice was done, they also acknowledged the difficulties the traumatic incident and the long legal battle brought with them. Yasin, a daily-wage labourer, says it was tough to leave aside his work and attend court hearings. He claims the family was forced to sell 200-300 yards of land to sustain the arduous legal battle.
Saleem, Qasim’s brother, said that for almost six years the family was focused on securing justice even as they tried to make ends meet. “We displayed patience. We had faith in law,” he said.
Saleem. Photo: Omar Rashid
Since Qasim’s death, it was Saleem who had to take care of his elder brother’s children along with his own family. While he is grateful to the team of lawyers led by Vrinda Grover who fought the case at all levels, he feels he still has a lot to fear as the kin of the convicted men may be gunning for revenge. This, despite him having a police guard for security provided by the state.
The convicted men belong to a dominant caste.
A question lingers though, if the rumours of cow slaughter and motorbike accident were both fake, why did the mob target Qasim and Samaydeen? Saleem says the accused persons would know best but feels the incident may have been motivated by the emergence of violent vigilantism in the state after the BJP came to power. “The cow slaughter rumours were fake. Mob lynching had become a trend then (in 2018). It was all about making it Hindu-Muslim,” said Saleem.
