Producer: Aishwarya S Iyer
Video Editor: Vishal Kumar
After spending 16 days in jail on charges of cow slaughter, I was allowed to walk free. Bajrang Dal leader Yogesh Raj had named me in a complaint based on which an FIR was filed.
Yogesh Raj and I are from the same village, Bulandshahr. All this happened after Inspector Subodh Kumar Singh was shot in the head during the clashes that erupted between the locals and the police after a cattle carcass was found in UP’s Bulandshahr district on 3 December.
But the difference between Yogesh Raj and us began over a Masjid and the loudspeaker placed on it. In 2017, he (Yogesh) announced and converted the Masjid into a Madrasa. Since then there has been some kind of conflict.
Such communal tension has been rampant in Bulandshahr – a fact known to authorities. Even Administrative and SI Kanchan Chaudhary realised this and could sense that there could be some unpleasant incident in the village.
In fact, a written application was filed to the district magistrate, where we said, we are living in fear and are scared that we'll be falsely implicated.
We had sent this letter to the DM a year back. We knew they would charge us with a false crime. And as you can see, that is exactly what happened.
My name has been dragged into a false case. You have no idea what I’ve gone through. The fear that gripped my family. No one will realise this. Only I know.
What made matters worse were the frequent meetings of the Bajrang Dal that stoked tensions further.
These Bajrang Dal people used to gather and meet at least four times a month. Their meetings used to be a reason of worry for us. We used to go and inform the authorities that such a meeting is taking place, please look into it. They used to turn around and tell us, “Is this causing you any trouble?” We used to say, are you waiting for some trouble to happen?
You see, we have a reason to be scared.
We are in minority. They are around 200-300 people who have gathered for a meeting. What are they discussing? If they are discussing about the development of the village, then why aren’t we invited for the meeting? They should also share and discuss with us.
That’s why we would insist and ask authorities to go and take a look at what's happening in the meetings. But it all went unheard.
To be honest, it’s this fear that has caused many to leave this village.
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