PUCL Bulletin, March 2001
A PUCL-Delhi
Report:
Killing of Mohmad Irshad by Delhi police in broad daylight
on a busy thoroughfare
It was noon time on 12-10-2000, Mohmad Irshad told his family members that he
would take his lunch after bringing his son Danish from school. As he was bringing
home his 3 years old son from Walia Public School on his two wheeler, on the
way, a cycle rickshaw puller hit the scooter from the back. A scuffle with the
rickshaw puller followed. In the meantime, two policemen on beat came and intervened
in typical police style. Later two more joined the fray. They first hit the
rickshaw puller with lathis, which he quietly bore and ran away. Then they started
hitting Irshad, which he resisted. Irshad, as one eye witness told the PUCL
team, tried to tell these policemen that as he had not committed any crime he
should not be beaten up. This was such a big crime in the eyes of Delhi Police
that he was beaten to death in most brutal manner. Mr. Prabhatilal Garg, 75
year old eye-witness told the visiting PUCL team 'tSls mldks ekjk oSls tkuoj
dks Hkh ugha ekjrs-*
The young child Danish was a witness to this ghastly murder. The other eye-witnesses
told us that throughout this beating Danish was in the lap of his father who
was protecting the child from being hit by the police. Finally when he could
not bear the beatings and the end came, he just kissed the child and collapsed.
One of the stunned eye-witness brought Danish home. He told the family members
about the whole incident and suggested the family members to go to the police
station. Danish reported that "iqfyl us ikik dks MUMs ls ekjk] ikik
us esjh iIih yh vkSj fxj x,-**
All these details have been published in the media. On 16-04-2000 PUCL-Delhi
team headed by its President Justice Ram Bhusan Mehrotra, Gopa Joshi and L.D.
Pancholi, went to Md. Irshad's residence C-14/14-C, Street No.4, Rishi Kardam
Marg, Chauhan Nagar, New Seelam Pur, New Delhi-110053. The team members expressed
their condolence to Irshad's family members comprising of grand-mother, father,
mother, wife, brothers and other relatives. They also got the family members'
version of the incident. To get the first hand account of the incident the team
members went to the spot where the murder had taken place--street No. 10, Gautam
Puri. At the street no.10 Gautam Puri the team members met the eye witnesses
Md. Iqbal, Laiek Ahmad, Ajay Sharma, Gayasuddin, Pawan Kumar Jain, Prabhailal
Garg and a host of others who gave first hand account of the incident.
The Witnesses Account of the Incident: The eye-witnesses corroborated the
media version of the incident. They added that once Md. Irshad was dead, the
policemen wanted to depose the dead body in a solitary place and implicate someone
else for the crime. Hence, they wanted to run away with the dead body. However,
the people who were numbed when the gruesome killing was taking place before
their eyes recovered from the shock and started gathering near the place of
crime. To stop the people from collecting the police resorted to lathi change
and public started withdrawing. At this moment Mr. Prabhatilal Garg 75 year
old man came forward and implored the public not to run away like cowards but
face the bullets in their chests. He volunteered to be an eye-witness to the
Incident. When the family members reached to the scene of the crime looking
for Irshad he suggested them to go to the hospital. He also went to the hospital
with the family members. There he was not allowed to lodge an F.I.R. At this
he started shouting loudly that the police had killed Irshad. This forced the
authorities to relent and he was allowed to record his statement.
He was very critical of police's role in the area. He said the police was responsible
for all illegal activities in the area. Police takes it share from the miscreants
in the locality. Even the hospital people, he accused, are in league with the
police. The witnesses feared that the police would try to take revenge "xokgksa
ij iqfyl dh Vs<+h fuxkg gS"*** They wanted civil liberties organizations
like the PUCL to protect the witnesses from the police.
Their fear was confirmed by Shri Pawan Kumar Jain, another eye witness from
the side of the victim's family. Mr. Jain told the investigating team that the
Police came to his home at 2a.m. to record his statement. He refused to go to
police station on the night of 12-10-2000.
To save their skin the police tried to give it a communal colour. They started
saying that Gautam Puri residents beat him up. But the residents of Gautam Puri
resisted. Mr. Garg, for example, did not allow the policemen to remove the dead
body of Mateen Ahmad. A lot of muslims also came forward to give evidence against
the police. When Mr. Garg went out on the road he saw four policemen, three
in plain clothes and one in uniform.
To get the police version, on 24th, the PUCL team went to the office of Mr.
S.C. Gautam, DCP, Seelampur. We reached there at 2 p.m. and instantly sent our
visitors' card along with a note on the purpose of our visit through his P.A.
The P.A. assured us that as soon as the DCP is free he would call us. However,
the DCP kept us waiting for two hours. Just before leaving the office he sent
his assistant to call everybody waiting to meet him in the visitors room. In
his room the DCP did not even glance at the PUCL-team. After signing some papers
brought by his subordinates, he just got up and said he was leaving. Mr. N.D.
Pancholi, one of the team-member, ran after him and told him the purpose of
our visit. The DCP did not stop to listen to him. While sitting in the car,
he told Mr. Pancholi that the case was with Mr. P.K. Srivastava, of Crime Branch.
Beyond this, he added that he could not give us any information. The PUCL-team
made repeated unsuccessful efforts to contact Mr. P.K. Srivastava. Thus the
police version of the incident could not be obtained in spite of repeated efforts
to contact the concerned police personnel.
'The people foiled attempts communalise the incident', "iqfyl okys ykblsal'kqnk
xqUMsgSa fdlh dks ugha cD'krs"**** said Mr. Prabhatilal Garg. It was
heartening to learn that people especially the eye-witnesses came to the help
of the victim's family and gave evidence against the police without caring for
their own security. This becomes more important in the context of the role of
police there in the normal times. The eye-witnesses said that the police was
never interested in containing anti-social elements like drug traffickers etc.
They (the police) are always interested in finding ways and means of extracting
money from the people. As one of them said that money could convert any illegal
action into a legal one. The law-abiding citizens are always forced by the police
to part with money on flimsy pretexts. Probably, it was the fear of police,
that the eyewitnesses could not come to the victim's rescue when he was being
beaten to death.
The team members were told by the eyewitnesses that after the death of the victim,
the police tried to give it a communal colouring by saying, that, he (Irshad)
was beaten by the members of the locality. This alarmed the residents of Gautam
Puri who joined hands in undoing the police propaganda and providing the necessary
social support to the aggrieved family. Irshad's family, in their hour of grief,
appreciated the way the Hindu men and women came forward to give evidence against
the police. They were hurt with the behavior of the policemen at the police
station. They said that the ACP Mr. Daulat Ram knew that, Md. Irshad had been
killed by the policemen. But he misguided the family members, who had gone to
the police station to know the whereabouts of the victim. The family members
as well as the eyewitnesses were also amazed at the findings of the 1st post-mortem
report which said that the death was due to heart failure. The eyewitnesses
said that the policemen first repeatedly hit his private parts. Finally, one
of them hit him on the chest with his elbow. The eyewitness were also amazed
at the postmortem report that there were no signs of injury in his body. They
said that he was beaten so heard with hands and feet that his private parts
were virtually crushed. How such injuries did not figure in the post mortem
report, they are unable to fathom.
While the police had left no stone unturned to hush up the case, the father
of the victim is crying for justice. He is a proud father, who says his sons
are law abiding citizens and do not have any bad habits. As this son had shouldered
full responsibility of running the family business, he was feeling the loss
of bread earner. The mother was worried about the safety of the child who is
an eyewitness to the ghastly crime. She was also concerned about the future
of Irshad's 22 year old wife who is expecting another child. As far as the wife
was concerned, she was too shocked to utter a word.
The younger brother also seemed to be shocked and confused. In the absence of
Irshad, the family does not know how to manage its economy. The youngest two
brothers are still studying. It seems with Irshad's death the family is rudderless.
Recommendations:
1. Compensation and support to the aggrieved family.
2. Protection from police harassment to the eye witnesses.
3. Stringent measures to root out the law violating habits of law enforcing
people. These measures have been elaborated in the reports of the Police Commission,
Padam Rosha and others.