BAREILLY: At a busy bus stand in the city on Tuesday, Mohammad Sahil, 20, an out-of-work labourer, was accused of theft by bystanders. A mob soon gathered around him, tied up his feet so he couldn’t escape, dragged him by his hair, beat him up and stamped on his neck to make him “confess” to his alleged crime. He was assaulted for nearly 30 minutes before police arrived. Cops found no stolen goods with him.
One Devendra Kumar, who lives in Shahjahanpur, said in his complaint that while waiting for a bus to Rudrapur he found his phone had gone missing from his pocket. As he started looking for it, another man, who has not been identified, said his wallet, too, had been stolen.
They started questioning those standing around them. When Sahil fumbled, they accosted him. They asked him his name and then the assault began.
In one of the videos shared on social media, he is seen crouching on the ground as a person asks him what he stole and keeps slapping him. And in a series of photos, a man in a light blue shirt is seen standing over him, his foot on Sahil’s neck to choke him as he is visibly gasping for breath.
By the time police got there, Sahil was badly bruised. They took him to the district hospital, where a medical checkup was done. He was discharged and taken straight to the police lockup.
On the basis of Kumar’s complaint, an FIR was registered against an “unidentified” person.
“We found Sahil was involved in the crime (of theft),” Kotwali SHO Pankaj Pant told TOI. But no phone or wallet was found on Sahil. “We found a phone from a person called Sabir, his friend. He has also been arrested … We will decide on the action after ensuring Sahil’s role in the theft.”
Until Tuesday evening, however, no FIR had been registered against the mob. But when images of the assault were shared on social media, Bareilly SSP Rohit Singh Sajwan ordered an FIR. He told TOI, “We took suo motu cognizance and filed a complaint under sections 147 (rioting), 149 (offence committed by any member of an unlawful assembly, 323 (voluntarily causing hurt) and 342 (wrongful confinement) of the IPC against unidentified persons.
Those who assaulted Sahil will be identified through videos and pictures.”
This was the fourth such case in Bareilly since 2019. In August 2019, a mentally ill Muslim man slipped into a coma after he was assaulted by a mob on cattle theft suspicion. He died in hospital. In September last year, an inebriated Muslim man was “mistaken for a thief”, tied to a tree and beaten up by a mob. He, too, died during treatment. And in February this year, a Muslim taxi driver, 31, was accused of cattle theft and lynched. He died of head injuries.
