By Sahar Khan
A month after the incident of mob attack resulting in the death of three Muslim youths who were transporting buffaloes, the Chhattisgarh police submitted a chargesheet before the Raipur trial court claiming that the victims died from injuries sustained when they jumped off the bridge.
The lawyer representing the victims expressing shock over the chargesheet cited it as a ‘bunch of lies not disclosing the complete facts’. The police seem to be shielding the actual culprits and diluting the horrifying incident apparently under political pressure, he asserted.
“We will file a writ petition against it in the High Court. Police should clearly reveal how the men were ruthlessly beaten to death with a premeditated plan by a mob believed to be around 12 in strength. And the trio were later thrown from the bridge,” said advocate Mirza Hafiz Baig, fighting for the victims.
Opposition Congress said that the state police has whitewashed the entire brutal incident by filing such chargesheet to save the criminals in the Arang mob lynching case. “There should be a judicial inquiry into the incident. The ruling BJP government’s intention is to save the accused in the heinous and barbaric act since the beginning. Why was the case of culpable homicide registered instead of murder in the first instance? Raipur BJP MP Brijmohan Agrawal has earlier given a statement even before the police charge-sheet was filed before the court that the death occurred owing to the jumping off the bridge. This indicates the police followed the line of the ruling BJP,” asserted Sushil Anand Shukla, chairperson, Congress media cell.
Two youths Chand Miyan, 24, and Guddu Khan, 35, both residents of Saharanpur (Uttar Pradesh) were chased and intercepted by the mob during the wee hours of June 7 at Arang when they were on their way to Odisha’s Sambalpur market from Mahasamund in Chhattisgarh, transporting buffaloes on a truck. Chand and Guddu were allegedly lynched at Arang, 40 kms from Raipur. A third person, Saddam Qureshi later succumbed to critical injuries on June 18 in a hospital in Raipur.
Following the June 7 incident, the Raipur police constituted a 14-member Special Investigation Team (SIT) to probe into the case registered under IPC sections 304 (culpable homicide), 34 (acts by several persons serving common intention) against unidentified persons. During the course of investigation, the police arrested five as accused.
The police in the chargesheet stated that all three on board the truck left the vehicle on Mahanadi bridge and as they feared for their lives jumped from a bridge on a river bed. “Chand Miyan died on the spot, Guddu succumbed to his injuries while on his way to hospital and critically wounded Saddam undergoing treatment died after 12 days,” police stated in the chargesheet.
Qureshi, who was admitted to a hospital, was earlier heard saying in a weak interrupted voice in a viral video that two men with whom he was onboard were beaten to death at Mahanadi bridge and he jumped off from the bridge to save his life. The relatives of the victims claimed when the mob was brutally thrashing the trio, their pleas seeking mercy and demanding water were clearly heard over the phone of one of the victims who made panic calls for help.
