New Hapur Video Shows Man Assaulted Over Cow Slaughter Rumours
In the new video, a group of men is seen questioning one of the victims over suspected cow slaughter.
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A new video that has surfaced in the Hapur lynching incident shows a man, identified as Samiuddin, being abused and assaulted by a mob over suspicion of cow slaughter even as UP police said that the matter was “road rage”.
A 39-year-old Muslim cattle trader, Qasim and 65-year-old Samiuddin were beaten up by a mob in Hapur’s Bajhera Khurd village on 18 June. While the former succumbed to his injuries, Samiuddin is still battling for his life in Hapur’s Dev Nandini hospital.
In the fresh video, a voice can be heard asking Samiuddin to reveal the names of all those present with him in the field. With people seen pushing him, pulling his beard and thrashing him, Samiuddin tells them that although the others had tied up the cows, he was there to get fodder.
Samiuddin is also heard initially denying that the cows were brought for slaughter but later admitted to it after being slapped and punched by a group of men.
Speaking to The Quint, Samiuddin’s younger brother Yaseen said, “When you are being hounded and beaten up by so many people, you can be made to say anything under pressure. If they had actually gone to slaughter the cows, where are the weapons? Why did they not make any videos of the weapons?”
Yaseen also said, “The villagers from Bajhera Khurd have tried to create ruckus after suspecting us of slaughtering cows earlier as well.”
When asked why he filed a FIR for a road accident, Yaseen said, “ We were all very caught up with Samiuddin’s condition. One of us wrote the FIR and I just signed it. Also, we couldn’t identify anyone from the video so we didn’t know whose name to include in the FIR.”
When The Quint visited the ground, people from Bhajera Khurd and the neighbouring Muslim-dominated Madapur – Samiuddin’a village – said that a mob of more than 100-150 people had gathered to thrash the two men. Yet, the police has so far arrested only two men – Yudhisthir Singh and Rakesh Sisodia.
Alleging that the police is intentionally trying to “hide the truth”, family of Rakesh said that the group of men from Bhajera Khurd had seen Qasim, Samiuddin and three other men tie up two cows in the field “to slaughter them”.
Samiuddin family, however, said there was no cow but only a suspicion of cow slaughter that led to the brawl. Qasim, who belonged to Hapur’s Saddikpura, about 5 metres away from the spot of the brawl, had gone to Madapur for the first time, his younger brother told The Quint. “My brother had gone to Madapur after receiving a call. He probably went there for his business. But they killed him because he was a Muslim.”
In an earlier video that had emerged, Qasim can be seen lying on the ground, pleading for water as group of men looked on. Salim said, “They did not even give him water because he was Muslim.”
Meanwhile, the UP police has apologised and transferred the three policemen who were seen in a viral picture with a mob dragging Qasim across the field. The cop who is seen objecting to the picture being taken, Inspector Ashwani Kumar, had told The Quint that the villagers were trying “to help lift the man from a pit.”
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