A five-member fact-finding committee, comprising three members from Communist Party of India (CPI) (Marxist) (CPI-M), one from Rashtriya Janata Dal, and one from CPI, accused the police of "deliberately concealing the death of Ibraish Khan amidst Khargone riots to help their crusade against the minorities post violence."
The committee visited the communally charged Khargone district of Madhya Pradesh on 25 April, a fortnight after the city witnessed communal clashes on the occasion of Ram Navami.
Levelling serious allegations against the police and Khargone district administration, Jaswinder Singh, CPI(M)'s Madhya Pradesh secretary, said:
"The death of Ibraish Khan was deliberately concealed from his parents, from the authorities in Bhopal, so that the administration could carry out their oppression of the minorities post riots."
Singh further went on to say that the police's statements and the first information reports themselves are contradictory, pointing towards the conspiracy behind hiding the death.
What Are the Allegations of the Fact-Finding Team?
The first point raised by the fact-finding team is about the case registered under the Code of Criminal Procedure (CrPC) section 174 (Police to enquire and report on suicide, etc) despite the police possessing the information that he was beaten up and suffered injuries.
"When the media reached the spot, the police told them that they were aware of a man having been beaten up. The preliminary post-mortem too revealed the cause of death to be head injury; then why was a case not registered under Section 302 (Punishment for murder)?"questioned Jaswinder Singh.
Another allegation of the team concerns the second FIR registered under section 302.
"The police say that without the post-mortem report, they can't register the murder case. Then how come they registered the case under IPC 302 on 14 April while they got the post-mortem report on 18 April?"asked Jaswinder.
In the matter of the death of Ibraish Khan, the fact-finding team also alleged that despite registering a case of murder on 14 April and sending his body to Indore, his family wasn't told about the unidentified dead body till 17 April and wasn't sent for identification for at least three days.
Police claimed that Ibraish's body was found on 11 April and after a short post-mortem it was sent to Indore as Khargone lacked refrigerated mortuary.
Acting Superintendent of Police for Khargone, Rohit Kashwani, however, reasoning that the details of an ongoing case can't be made public, said:
"Everything was done as per the law following all due process."
On the other hand, family members of Ibraish had earlier accused the police of hiding the fact that he was dead.
Family Claims Police Concealed the Death
Talking to the media, Ibraish's brother Ikhlaq Khan claimed that it was only after he threatened to call media that the police informed them about the death and called them for identification. Ibraish's dead body was handed over to the family around a week after his death.
"We have been going to the police station everyday but they didn't tell us anything. On 17 April, some constable came to get details and when I told him that it's Sunday today but I will call the media persons tomorrow, he, within five minutes, told me that my brother's dead body is in Indore and that I am to go there for identification."Ikhlaq Khan.
Khargone Violence Funnelled by 'BJP's Communal Polarisation for Upcoming Elections': Fact-Finding Team
In a straight accusation, the fact-finding team blamed the ruling Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) for the Khargone riots, saying: "They wanted it to happen."
The fact-finding team claimed that the clashes could have been avoided had there been adequate deployment of police.
It also alleged that everything pre and post Khargone violence had been done keeping in view the fact that the BJP had lost nine out of 10 seats in the Khargone and Barwani districts.
"The BJP has been trying to create a turbulence in the Khargone Barwani region since last one year. They used to win most of the seats in the region but they lost nine seats in the 2018 elections. The BJP is now trying to create a divide and capitalise on the division and win Hindu votes in the upcoming elections. However, pushing people into the communal frenzy will fire back on them."Swarup Nayak, leader, Rashtriya Janata Dal
(At The Quint, we question everything. Play an active role in shaping our journalism by becoming a member today.)