Haryana, September 1: Seven people—two of them minors—have been taken into custody by Haryana police for allegedly murdering a migrant worker from West Bengal on the grounds that he may have eaten beef. Police stated that more investigation is being conducted and that there is a possibility the suspects have ties to cow vigilante organizations.
A 22-year-old migrant worker lost his life to physical assault in Haryana
Sabir Malik, a 22-year-old victim, was fatally beaten on August 27 in the Charkhi Dadri district. He moved to the state to work as a ragpicker, and he was residing in Hansawas Khurd village with his wife and 2-year-old kid.
A group of young people had contacted the police in the area just hours before he passed away, claiming that beef was being cooked and eaten in the houses there. even though the cops confiscated the meat and sent it for analysis, the accused, police say, took the law into their hands and beat Sabir to death.
The accused have been identified as Abhishek, Mohit, Kamaljit, Sahil and Ravinder, police said.
On Tuesday (August 27), a group of youths caught a few ragpickers in Hansawas Khurd village and alleged that they were consuming beef. Sabir resided in the same community. When the police arrived on the scene after being informed, they discovered that a few people who lived in slum dwellings there were cooking meat. To find out if the meat was truly beef, forensic and veterinary specialists examined the area and took samples of it. Everyone was waiting for the report. Sabir Malik died as a result of the savage attacks he suffered from the accused a few hours later. After a post-mortem examination, his body was returned to his family.
The accused allegedly beat Malik and his friend Aseeruddin after calling them to a store offering to sell empty plastic bottles, according to the investigators. They allegedly carried Malik on a motorbike to another place and abused him once more, which is how he died, while Aseeruddin was able to flee. Later on, his body was found close to the slums where he had resided.
In his police complaint, Surajuddin Sarker, the complainant and brother-in-law of the victim who also resides in the same slums, reaffirmed this.
“On the afternoon of August 27, three men came and called him, saying that they had a lot of discarded material to sell,” he told The Indian Express. He grabbed his bags and rickshaw and followed them. Later on, his rickshaw was discovered at a nearby marketplace. He was first beaten close to the market, and then he was brought to a distant location and given additional punishment. He was discovered dead in a nullah about 4:45 p.m.
“Earlier that day, around noon, my father and I had been called to the local police station and asked whether we had beef. We clearly told them we did not, and that it is not available there. My sister later informed me that Sabir had left and had not come back. I called the police, and they eventually located his body,” he continued.
“The past five years, we have been employed there. We were well known. I never imagined that we would experience this. We would have left if someone had warned us, they were having problems. He asked, “Why beat him to death?”
A Special Investigation Team was formed, per the police, to apprehend the accused, who were taken into custody on Friday and Saturday.
Sabir was from North 24 Parganas, West Bengal, specifically Miarbheri. The family was taken aback by the crime’s brutality. Sabir, according to them, had not lived at home for the previous five years and only made six-month visits.
Relatives claim that West Bengal Chief Minister Mamata Banerjee called and assured a job for the next of kin.
“This is a horrific incident,” stated Samirul Islam, the Chairman of the Migrant Laborer Welfare Board (West Bengal) and a member of the TMC in the Rajya Sabha. We are with the family. Our government is in touch with the Haryana government. Several states are targeting Bengali migrant laborers. They were just beaten up in Odisha. We want Sabir to get justice.