By TwoCircles.net Staff Reporter
Mumbai: A day after the Dadri lynching on September 28, the country was still trying to comprehend the scale of what had been happening in an increasingly-intolerant society that India had become. For Muhammad Yakub Shaikh though, this was a day to return to work after his Eid holidays. Except, he never returned home after work.
In what seems like another incidence of growing intolerance in the country, Yakub, 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 two weeks 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.
Mumbai Mirror reports police as saying Arekar challenged Shaikh to insert the pump into his rectum to test the pressure, to which he agreed and Arekar then started the pump, which released very high speed air into Shaikh’s body.
However, family of Shaikh claims that Shaikh, a father of three, and Arekar had an argument over the Qurbani offered during Eid after which the incident took place and that the police are allegedly trying to brush the incident under the carpet calling it as a fun fight that resulted in his death.
The death certificate from his autopsy at the KEM post-mortem centre, conducted by Dr. Sunil Vidhate makes the case murkier. The certificate described the cause of this unnatural death in the following terms: “Respiratory failure due to pulmonary air embolism with pressured air in large and small intestine, thoracic and abdominal cavities and scrotal sac.”
This means pressurized air was inserted into his body through his anus with enough force to fill him up like a balloon and cause his death within seconds due to air entering his blood vessels.
No wonder Yakub’s family does not believe the police’s version.
Sample this: it is a service station where more than 20 people work at a given time. Yet, the police have recorded only one person’s statement that also happened to file the FIR. Where are the statements from the administration department, other fellow workers, and security guards? “The entire service station has functioning CCTV cameras, except the one which would have recorded the incident. How is that possible?” asks Shahbaz Ahmed, son of Yakub. “The police spoke to us only today, and have taken statements from my mother and sister, but not me. We are not even sure how the case is progressing,” he told Twocircles.net.
Ahmed said his father had been working at the station for nine months, and never reported any mishap.
Shinrai Toyota, which runs the service station and is Toyota’s official dealer, has not even bothered to contact the family. “Let alone talking of compensation, not one person has contacted us in this regard,” says Ahmed. “We are not saying that the company has a hand in it, but why are they trying to cover up the incident? How does it help them?” Ahmad adds.
Akeel Shaikh, social co-ordinator-Mumbai, All India Majlis-e-Ittehadul Muslimeen said his party had decided to help the family in the matter. “This cannot be the work of just one person…at least 3-4 people were involved in this,” he said. Shaikh added that the FIR had been filed by a fellow worker, who told the police that this was a case of a prank gone wrong, and that Yakub was aware of what he was doing. Ahmed also thanked AIMIM for raising the issue to media’s attention.
Although it has been more than two weeks since the incident occurred, Toyota is also yet to react on the matter. When contacted by Twocircles.net, a public relations officer asked for time in order to get back with the company’s response.
Shaikh was murdered only a day after the lynching of Mohammad Akhlaq in Dadri of Uttar Pradesh by a mob allegedly due to announcement from a temple that the family was storing beef at home. The family of Shaikh suspects bigotry played a role in this killing too, however, a thorough investigation in the matter by police will reveal the real intention behind his killing.