Khudai Khidmatgar Central and Haryana Fact Finding Team
Its been 10 years Naushad works for a cattle trader and dairy owner Sunil in village Dhoki near charkha Dadri . On 19 January 2019 he and his co-workers ( Mehboob and Iqbal ) loaded One buffalo and 3 Buffalo Calves in a pickup . They were heading to sell them in Animal fare held in Bagpat ( U.P) . On their way their vehicle was checked on two police check posts and were handed over receipts for the same .
Around 8:00 PM they neared near village Bhalout of Rohtak District Haryana when they were stopped by heavily drunk cow vigilante Jashpal Gumana .He claimed that there are cows in the vehicle . Naushad replied there aren’t any cows in the vehicle and if he want he can check the vehicle. He refused to see inside the vehicle and started shouting cow smugglers- cow smugglers to gather people. He forced Naushad to get down form the vehicle. Youth started gathering with sticks. Meanwhile his co-workers (Mehboob and Iqbal) ran away with the vehicle to save their lives.
He snatched Rs 2000 ( approx) and bike keys from the victim’s pocket. Thereafter they stripped him and started thrashing him furiously. He was slapped, kicked and dragged on the road. They tied him to the pole and tortured him for almost 2 hours. They burned his skin, lips etc using beedi and thrashed him till he became unconscious. They sprinkled water on his face and continued thrashing and abusing mercilessly.
Mehboob and Iqbal who ran away with the vehicle called Dial 100 more than once till their call was answered. Person at dial 100 gave number for the nearby police station. They called police station to seek help after which police reached the village. Police untied Naushad from the pole while he was still being thrashed.
Police took Naushad to the Sadar thana Rohtak . He was in immense pain and was bleeding from the nose, ear, legs and back. He pleaded police for the medical help however police gave him some tablet with tea. He was then handcuffed and made to sit on the floor in cold with no medical help. Sunil the dairy owner reached police station and offered him food and kurta. Accused threatened Naushad inside police station also.
On 20th Jan 2019 Civil society groups read about the incident and decided to visit Police station without any delay . Rajkumari Dhaiya Distt president all India Progressive women’s Association , Preet Singh Distt president Kisan Sabha , Com Prakash form CITU , Kamlesh Ladli Vijendra Batyana , Adv Attar Singh Hudda reached Sadar thana and took details of the Incident . When they reached out ASI Balkishan they were shocked to see severely injured Naushad handcuffed and chained to bed. While half conscious Naushad was sitting on the cold floor , the accused, Gumana, was sitting on a chair, having tea with the police.
Civil society groups questioned police why injured Naushad was made to spend entire night on the cold floor and hand cuffed as if he was a dangerous wanted Criminal or terrorist . “ we handcuffed and chained him thinking he might run away” claimed police .However matter of the fact is that the Victim could barely walk at that time . He was in immense pain. Delegation asked police to take him for medical check up and treatment. He was only taken to PHC on 20th evening in village Kiloi only after persistent reminders by the civil society groups. He was given only one tablet there. Still Proper medical attention and Medical Check up was missing. Later on Naushad was asked to leave At 9 pm with instructions to revisit police station with the dairy owner by next morning.
Delegation also spoke with accused Jaspal . Jaspal narrated entire the incident in front of the police . He accepted that Naushad told him that there are only Buffaloes inside the vehicle . He also accepted that he stripped and dragged victim, Slapped him, tied him to the pole and victim was thrashed thereafter. Delegation also enquired whether he saw cows in the vehicle which he denied.
“Fir will be filed against Jaspal as he is accused and Naushad will be released as he in innocent “ replied SHO Manjeet. More when he was asked why there was no FIR against the accused when he is accepting everything in front of them. Initially complaint written with jaspal’s name on it however it was torn after call from someone . Around 5:00 Pm Bitto Pradhan visited police station and took away the accused. He said he will bring accused back to the police station next morning . However he didn’t reach police station next morning when delegation visited again. Though accused was drunk no medical check up was done until next day.
On 21 January Naushad , Sunil, Iqbal and Mehboob visited civil society group and said their vehicle is still in police custody. They have provided all the proofs and documents however police claims that they will file case on all of them. Delegation spoke with SP and discussed the situation. They also visited SP along with the victims . All injuries were shown to him . He ensured action against the culprits and also ensured that victims will get justice. After which SIT was formed for the same.
Such incidents just before Loksabha election are a matter of concern . It seems that initially police was under political pressure due to which they kept the rule book aside. However when the issue got highlighted the tried to act to save themselves.
On Feb 1st 2019 we reached Rohtak police station we were told that ASI Balkishan is handling this case and he will be back in an hour . We revisited after one hour he was not there . When we called him we were told that he is reaching in 10 minutes . When he failed to reach we asked for SHO and were told SHO is not available . when we called again ASI asked his fellow Staff member to share information with us.
FIR No 38 is filed against victims for animal cruelty and for Cow protection . When asked how come charges for cow protection when there were no cows . We were told that theses charges will be removed once presented.
FIR 39 If filed against accused for 341,342,506,325 and IPC 34. So far three accused Jashpal Gumana ,Rinku , Amarjeet aka Kaala were arrested and are on bail now. We were told that investigation is still on and will arrest remaining accused persons as their names appear in investigation.
Sunil mentioned that intervention by civil society was a great help when every thing was in wrong direction. They doubted Naushad’s well-being without such intervention. Initially police was not even talking to them in a proper way. However, there is some sigh of relief once they met SP and SIT is formed. Naushad and Mehboob spoke with us and narrated every bit of their ordeal with fear on their faces. They thanked all who stood by them and saved their lives.