Lynching of Zafar Khan: Three days on, No Arrests, No compensation. Another example of justice in shining India
Jaipur / New Delhi,
June 18: Social activist Zafar Khan, 55, was beaten to death allegedly by staffers
of municipality in Pratapgarh town Friday morning when he objected to them
clicking pictures of women defecating in the open. Despite police lodging named
FIR against the assaulters with murder charges soon after the incident, no
arrests have been made till this report is being posted now, nor has the victim
family got any compensation from the district authorities or government.
In the FIR lodged by
in Khan's elder brother Noor Mohammed, civic employees called Kamal Harijan,
Ritesh Harijan, Manish Harijan and municipal commissioner Ashok Jain were made
accused. Four of them were
detained as a huge crowd of the locals thronged to the civil hospital Friday
noon where Khan's body was kept and the police persuaded the family and locals
to allow post-mortem and funeral and assured them that the accused would be
formally arrested, says Nadeem Ansari, president of Pratapgarh Congress
Minority Cell. But soon after the post-mortem and funeral, all the four were
let off, he alleged.
"They were
detained just to pacify the anger of the locals. Four out of five people named
in the FIR were kept there. The police persuaded us to allow post-mortem and
they will arrest the four who were detained. We believed their promise even
though District Magistrate or Superintendent of Police had not arrived there.
But soon after post-mortem and funeral, the police changed their
attitude," Ansari told IndiaTomorrow.net over phone. "While the state
Home Minister said that three-four people have been arrested, the SP told media
yesterday that no arrests have been made and investigation is going on,"
he added.
Today is the third day
of the incident, but neither accused have been arrested nor has the family -
widow and their 14-year-old daughter - got any compensation as announced by the
civic authorities.
According to the FIR,
the municipality staffers were clicking photos of the women defecating in the
open in the Kacchi Basti of Mahtab Shah Colony on the outskirts of the
Pratapgarh town. Khan came up to them and objected to their act. On this, the
municipality staffers pounced on him, kicked him and beat him with stick. Khan
collapsed on the spot, he was rushed to the civil hospital where he was
declared brought dead.
Congress leader also
said that the victim family has not got any compensation. He alleged that
"the municipality authorities had announced Rs one lakh as compensation
but when they were approached they agreed to increase the amount to Rs two lakh
but on condition that the case against the staffers would be withdrawn." There is no male in
Khan's family. He has wife and two daughters - one of them is married and
another is 14 years old. Khan was leader of a labour organization and would run
a kirana shop to earn livelihood. "In the wake of
the lackadaisical attitude of the authorities, hundreds of locals gathered at
the police station Saturday evening and to pacify the people, the police told
them that some parts of the body have been sent for forensic examination and it
appears he died of heart attack. The police is trying to suppress the case but
they don't want to do it in one go given the anger of the people," said
Nadeem Ansari.
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