New Delhi: A Muslim man died after he was allegedly assaulted and intimidated by a group of Holi revellers in Unnao district of Uttar Pradesh after he objected to them forcibly smearing him with colour. While police said there were no signs of injury on his body, the deceased Sharif’s family insisted that he died either directly due to the assault or the trauma and shock caused by the incident.
Shamim, a tailor who was an eyewitness to the incident, told The Wire that he saw a group of boys forcibly throw colour on Sharif, aged about 48, while raining down slaps on him when he objected. Sharif, who drove a water tanker in the middle east, had returned to his native Unnao two months ago.
On March 15, a day after Holi, Sharif was travelling in an e-rickshaw when he came across a group of revellers near the Kasif Ali Sarai locality. Shamim, who was outside to purchase meat, said he noticed Sharif attempt to get off the e-rickshaw and request the boys to not throw colour on him as it was the Muslim holy month of Ramazan. But instead of listening to his appeals, the boys started misbehaving with him and abused him, all the while throwing colour at him, said Shamim, adding that he intervened but the boys did not pay any heed to him either.
Shamim thought the matter would end there. He asked Sharif to board the e-rickshaw and move on from the locality. However, Shamim said that as soon as the e-rickshaw moved, the boys chased after it and forced it to stop near a transformer. “The road was rough and the driver could not take it that far. They pulled Sharif out of the e-rickshaw and started slapping him. They insulted him and kept throwing colour at him while simultaneously slapping him,” said Shamim. He said that soon after he noticed Sharif started to wobble. “I caught hold of him. He had barely told me about the locality where he lived when he took his last breath in my arms,” said Shamim.
A First Information Report was lodged against four persons and unidentified others on charges of culpable homicide not amounting to murder and intentional insult that provokes a breach of peace. The Wire is not naming the accused as they could be minors.
The criminal case was lodged on the complaint of Minhaz, Sharif’s brother–in-law. Minhaz said that Sharif had stepped out to purchase items for iftar (the evening meal with which Muslims break their fast during the month of Ramazan). In the FIR, Minhaz, who mentioned Shamim as being the eyewitness to the incident, said that the accused boys were bent on beating him up. “They beat him so much that Sharif died on the spot,” he said.
Unnao police said the postmortem report showed that Sharif died due to a cardiac arrest. Assault could not be confirmed and there were no signs of injury found on his body, as per the postmortem report, the police said. Unnao police in a statement said that they were deeply investigating other details of the case.
Minhaz did not buy this theory. He blamed the holi revellers for causing Sharif’s death, even if the final medical cause was a cardiac arrest.
“A healthy man leaves his house for some work. And an incident happens on the road and he gets a heart attack. They are saying he died of a heart attack. But what was the reason for the heart attack,” asked Minhaz. He said that had Sharif been feeling unwell he would not have left home in the first place. “If he died due to a heart attack, then how were there colours on his body,” he asked.
Minhaz said that Sharif left behind five daughters but he was not seeking any monetary compensation but punishment for the accused persons. “I only want justice,” he said.
Shamim was riddled with guilt that despite his intervention he could not save Sharif’s life. He alleged that while the accused boys threw colour at Sharif, their guardians looked on instead of stopping them. “The heart attack did not come out of nowhere,” said Shamim.
Unnao police said they would take strict action against those spreading rumours after the incident.
