Adnan Mansoori was hanging out with his 13-year-old younger brother and their 15-year-old friend in his home in Ujjain, Madhya Pradesh. Just then, the trio heard sounds of drums beating outside, and they rushed to their balcony to check.
As they watched a procession of ‘Mahakal Sawari’ taking place outside, one of the men in the crowd pointed at the three boys and shouted, ‘look they are deliberately spitting (at us)’.
Some members of the procession began recording them standing at the balcony. The video, made viral, doesn’t itself show the boys spitting. Hours later, Adnan and the two under-18 boys were taken into police custody. Adnan, who had turned 18 just two months prior to this incident, was arrested, while the two minors were put in juvenile jail.
This was on 17 July 2023. Two days later, on 19 July, the Ujjain district administration arrived at the residence, and proceeded to demolish Adnan’s house amid blaring music and dhol (drums).
The video went viral on social media and attracted widespread condemnation, as even though several Muslim-owned properties have been demolished in Madhya Pradesh over the last two years, the live music brought by the administration was a first of its kind. The authorities had pasted a backdated notice on Mansoori’s home calling the property “dangerous” just hours before the demolition.
Several news channels ran headlines saying that the three boys were arrested because of their act of spitting on a Hindu procession. Turns out, the procession member, on whose purported complaint the boys were arrested, never saw them spitting. In fact, he never saw anyone spitting at the procession. The witness in the case too never saw this happen.
Finally, in September 2023, the two minors were let out on bail. Adnan was granted bail by the Madhya Pradesh high court in December 2023, after spending over 150 days in jail.
"My elder son spent 5 months in jail and younger son spent 3 months in jail. They are both just teenagers. I lost my home to the demolition overnight and they went to jail...all for nothing," Ashraf Mansoori said, speaking to The Quint.
What The FIR Said
The FIR was lodged at Ujjain’s Kharakuwan police station on 17 July, on the complaint of one Sawan Lot, a member of the procession.
The FIR's basis was Sawan’s complaint.
The FIR quoted Sawan saying: “I had come to see the Mahakal procession and was standing at Tanki Chowk. Along with me, my friends Yogesh Bagmar and Ajay Khatri were also standing with me at Tanki Chowk...Three unknown boys from the terrace of the building adjacent to Super Gold Bakery started spitting on the procession, they rinsed their mouth with water and spat on the procession...one of the men standing nearby Masum Jaiswal from Indore made a video of the entire incident from his mobile. The religious sentiments of me and the entire society have been hurt by this incident.”
The Ujjain police charged Adnan and the two others under sections 295A (Deliberate and malicious acts intended to outrage religious feelings), 153A (Promoting enmity between different groups), 296 (Defiling religious place), 505 (public mischief) and 34 (Acts done by several persons in furtherance of common intention).
'Police Asked Me to Sign': Complainant Denies Charges in Court Testimony
Later, Sawan Lot, on 28 October 2023, submitted a three-page written testimony to the judicial magistrate.
In the testimony, accessed by The Quint, Lot denied ever seeing the three boys or anyone else spit at the procession. Instead, he said, the police asked him to sign papers that he had never written.
“I don’t recognise the accused. I don’t recognise the minors (who are the other accused in the case) either,” Lot wrote.
Lot wrote that by evening, certain quarreling began taking place at the spot and police officers arrived.
“Police officers were catching hold of a number of people at the spot and taking them to the police station. I was also taken along. It was at the police station that I learnt that someone spat at the procession. I had not seen anyone spit at the procession. The police officers at the station asked me to sign on a few papers, so I did so. I was not told what is written in the papers,” Lot further wrote in his testimony.
In the subsequent pages of the testimony, Lot went on to deny almost every police claim.
“It is right to say that on 17 July I had gone to watch the Mahakal procession. It is wrong to say...that I saw 3 unknown boys spit at the procession. It is wrong to say...that I saw this happen and informed other people around me,” Lot wrote.
'Police Did Not Take My Statement': Witness in Case
It isn’t just Lot, but the witness mentioned by the police, Ajay Khatri, too denied all these claims in his written testimony to the court. Khatri’s testimony, accessed by The Quint, states the following.
“When we were leaving after seeing the procession, we saw that there was a lot of crowd at Kharakuwan police station. When we went to check it out, we saw that Hindu organizations and other people were shouting at the police station. The policemen had got some of us to sign some documents. When the police asked us to sign, we did so. The police did not interrogate us, nor did they record our statements,” Khatri wrote.
“I will not be able to recognise the person who spat on the palanquin when I come in front of me, nor do I know him by face.” he further wrote.
No Video Evidence, Says Lawyer, Court Grants Bail
The high court granted bail to Adnan on 15 December, noting in its order that both the complainant and the witness have turned hostile.
“Considering all the facts and circumstances of the case, arguments advanced by counsel for the parties, nature and gravity of allegation as also taking note of the fact that complainant Sawan has been examined before the trial Court but he has turned hostile and did not support the case of prosecution and even he has also denied his relevant portion of his FIR, eye- witness Ajay Khatri also turned hostile and not supported the case of the prosecution....I deem it proper to release the applicant on bail,” the order states.
Speaking to The Quint, Adnan Mansoori’s lawyer, Devendra Sengar said that the complainant and witness both turned hostile. He also said that the police failed to produce any evidence. “There was no video evidence of any act of spitting in the first place. Even on the off chance anyone would have been spitting from the balcony, it would have fallen on the green sheets under the balcony. So, there was no proof of the accusation,” Sengar said.
'Lost Our Home, Children Got Arrested...All For Nothing': Father
Adnan has now been back in home for about a month, but life has been slow to get back to normal. Speaking to The Quint, his father, Ashraf Mansoori says that his children got arrested for a crime they never committed. “They are innocent children. Adnan had turned 18 just months before his arrest. He has lost 5 months of his life now, languishing in jail,” Mansoori says.
Moreover, Mansoori lost his 40-year-old home in the demolition, since which he has been living with his brother. “Thankfully my brother took me and my family in. Overnight I lost my home, and both my children were put in jail. Now we will try to put ourselves back on our feet,” he adds.
The Quint spoke to Sachin Sharma, Ujjain’s Superintendent of Police (SP), who said that it is not the first time a witness has gone hostile in a case.
“Witness and complainant turning hostile during crimina trials is common. For instance, in a homicide case, if a son says xyz killed my father, and then in court denies that, it doesn’t mean that xyz didn’t kill his father or that the murder didn’t happen. All complaints and witness statements are taken via procedures in place, no one can be bounded to write something,” Sharma told The Quint.
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