By TwoCircles.net Staff Reporter,
For the past few months, India has seen a growing sense of intolerance, especially towards minorities and Dalits. Whether it was Dadri, or Sunped, the gruesome acts have been followed by equally controversial statements made by the members of the Bharatiya Janata Party. However, one incident, an alleged hate crime, failed to gather the attention of the mainstream media and the mainstream intellectuals, and the subsequent ‘speedy’ justice delivered by the Mumbai Police has left the family and friends of Muhammad Yakub Shaikh confused and depressed, with little hope in sight.
Shaikh, who worked as a cleaner in a Toyota Service Centre, died after highly-pressurized air was inserted into his body through his anus allegedly by a colleague after arguments over Qurbani. In the nearly two months that have followed since, the police’s reaction has been confusing to say the least: although they have registered a case under section 302 of IPC and arrested one person, Santosh Arekar, they insist on calling it a case of a prank gone wrong.
It is in such circumstances, that friends and family have decided to hold a meeting on Monday, November 23, to discuss the future course of action needed to ensure justice to Shaikh’s family. Two protests outside the Toyota service centre, and protests outside the Police station have yielded little, and the police, like last month, continue to call it a case of a ‘prank’ gone wrong.
“The police insist it was a crime committed by one person, but we cannot believe this. There were more than one persons involved in this incident. We have also been asking the police to give us the address of the accused, but they have not even bothered to do that,” said one person related with the case of Shaikh.
As mentioned earlier, the fact that one person has been arrested makes little sense to the family, and this is one of their biggest fights: it seems that Shinrai Toyota, where Shaikh worked, and Toyota India, the parent company, have deliberately ensured that no more investigation is carried out in this regard. This, despite the fact-finding report presenting more than enough examples to show that the crime was committed more than one person. After the incident was reported by local Urdu press and Twocircles.net, a group of concerned citizens belonging to Committee for the Protection of Democratic Rights (CPDR), Bharat Bachao Andolan (BBA) and Jagrut Kamgar Manch (JKM) then formed a fact-finding team to investigate Yakub Shaikh’s ghastly murder and to get to the bottom of “pact of silence” woven by the management of Toyota Shinrai as well as the local police. The report could not be clearer in saying what every family member believed: this was not a ‘prank’, nor was it committed by one person. It also went on to question the actions of the police and the service centre.
While Dadri went on to jolt the national conscience of the country, the incident at the Toyota Centre was forgotten by large sections of the media: the quest for justice in India can be a long, arduous journey and the family of Shaikh know that.
Related:
Social Media backlash over Toyota’s silence in Service Centre death
Toyota Service Centre death: A case of cover up of a hate crime?
Toyota Service Centre murder: MIM MLA demands compensation, fair investigation in ‘hate crime’