A 60-year-old man was killed in Parsoi village in Uttar Pradesh’s Sonbhadra district, over a dispute concerning a concrete platform where villagers kept Muharram ‘Tazias’, The Indian Express reported.
The incident happened on the night of 20 March, when, according to the FIR lodged at the Obra police station, the victim, Mohammed Anwar, was attacked when he tried to prevent a group of people from demolishing the platform.
The FIR, as stated by The Indian Express, has named a government teacher Ravindra Kharwar as the prime accused, along with 14 others, 11 of them juveniles.
The victim’s family told the daily that the platform was never a cause of dispute between the muslims and the dominant scheduled tribes in the region. They allege that since Kharwar, the prime accused in the case, joined the government school six months back, the tensions began. Kharwar, according to Anwar’s brother, began holding a Sangh shakha near the platform.
Naeem Ghazipuri, Anwar’s elder brother told The Indian Express that the village pradhan had got the platform built in 2007 to keep the tazias during Muharram and that the residents of the village used to take part in the procession.
However, when the teacher joined six months ago, he allegedly instigated the villagers and got the platform demolished. Later, a compromise was arrived at and the platform was rebuilt.
About a month ago, the platform was destroyed again and was, once more, rebuilt after a compromise with the administration.
However, on the eve of Holi, some people came and tried to demolish the platform again, when Anwar intervened, the FIR stated.
The group of approximately 20 people present there then attacked Anwar with “axes and sticks”, before strangling him with his own scarf, The Indian Express report says.
Naeem added that the teacher was not there at the time of the incident, despite planning for the demolition.
Seven of those named in the FIR, including five juveniles were arrested on Saturday, 23 March while Kharwar is said to be on the run.
Sonbhadra DM Ankit Kumar said that an investigation has been launched against the teacher, while adding that he was not aware of Kharwar running any shakha near the platform.
A Kanshi prant karyawahak of the RSS , Bankey Lal Yadav, denied knowing the teacher and said that he was not associated with the group.
The suspects have been booked under Sections 147 (rioting), 148 (rioting, armed with deadly weapon), 149 (unlawful assembly), 295 (injuring or defiling place of worship with intent to insult the religion of any class) and 302 (murder) of the IPC, the report says.
(With inputs from The Indian Express.)
(At The Quint, we question everything. Play an active role in shaping our journalism by becoming a member today.)