By Syed Abubakr and Sumit Singh
“I don’t understand what kind of system this is. We lost a family member. We filed a complaint against those who assaulted Sharif, leading to his death, and now the police have booked us instead of taking action against the accused,” said Sharif’s brother-in-law, Minhaz.
He was speaking to Maktoob over the phone from the Lucknow bench of the Allahabad High Court, where he was preparing to file two writ petitions against the Uttar Pradesh Police.
The Unnao Police have registered a First Information Report (FIR) against the family members and relatives of Mohammad Sharif, a Muslim man who died on March 15 after being allegedly assaulted by a group of Hindu men for resisting the application of Holi colors in Uttar Pradesh’s Unnao district.
The FIR, filed on March 16, names a total of 117 individuals, including three of Sharif’s relatives—Minhaz, Sameem, and Shadab—along with 100 unidentified persons. It was registered based on a complaint by Rajesh Dixit, a sub-inspector at the Unnao Kotwali police station.
According to the FIR, a copy of which is with Maktoob, a large crowd gathered at Sharif’s funeral around 11:45 PM on March 15. He was to be laid to rest at a graveyard near Jama Masjid in Unnao. The FIR states that as the funeral procession reached the Lucknow-Kanpur highway, some “anti-social elements” allegedly raised slogans.
This story was originally published in maktoobmedia.com. Read the full story here.