TCN Staff Reporter
A video that went viral on Tuesday, 25 February, on social media shows police personnel beating five injured people and a policeman capturing the incident on the phone while they are being forced to sing the national anthem. Out of the five men, 24-year-old Faizan has passed away on Thursday.
Faizan, a resident of Gali No 5 of Kardam Puri, passed away at the LNJP Hospital. “He was admitted to the neurosurgery ward of the hospital on Tuesday and died early Thursday morning. He had suffered gunshot wounds and was critical,” Dr. Kishore Singh, medical director, LNJP hospital told to media.
He has been identified as the man in the blue shirt in the viral video, lying near the pavement. Faizan’s elder brother Naim, who works in a meat shop, told that earlier they were taken to GTB hospital where they were treated for “name’s sake.”
“They were treated only for name’s sake. Soon they were taken to Jyoti Nagar police station where they were kept for two days. My brother was dying in a lock-up, but the policemen wouldn’t let us see him. They abused us and threw us out of the police station.” said Naim, Faizan’s elder brother
Tariq Ali, son of Kauser Ali who was seen in the video, told that he saw the video on Facebook and identified his father in it. Kauser Ali was coming back to Kardam Puri, where they reside, from India Gate on that day.
Earlier, ALT New had independently verified the video and had spoken to one of the victims seen in the video, who, on the condition of anonymity, had said, “Police had brutally thrashed the 5-6 (men). [They] broke someone’s hand, someone’s leg. My hand and leg are also broken. There are 8-10 stitches on my head. I am unable to speak. Policemen were saying do you want azaadi?”
Faizan’s brother Naim also alleged that the police had an idea that he was about to die. “What we got from them was a battered body, bleeding through its skull, with the jaw broken. This was not Faizan. I saw my brother murmur in pain the whole night. He kept repeating “Police beat me up. They beat me up,” said Bablu, Faizan’s brother-in-law.
In the viral video, one of the men is shown as bleeding. The video shows a policeman capturing the incident on his phone camera as a protester is being made to sing the National Anthem. As this is happening, a voice is heard saying, “Sing Vande Mataram!”, while another is shouting an expletive of living in Hindustan. A third person standing up is heard, apparently taunting, the men to shout Aazadi (freedom), a popular slogan in the protests against the Citizenship (Amendment) Act.
Sounds of the injured men being hit by a lathi can be heard, while a policeman is shown pulling the hair of one of the men. It is yet unclear where the video was shot. But not surprisingly, it has evoked strong reactions.
After the death of the young man Faizan seen in this viral video, there is a question, whether there will be any action be taken against the police personnel responsible for his death. Delhi Police has not yet cleared the picture regarding this video. In the video, there are many questions that need to be answered, like beating the youths brutally, forcing them to sing the national anthem instead of taking them to the hospital for treatment. This incident has put a mark of bad name on the police uniform which will not be cleared for years.