By Tarique Anwar / News Click

New Delhi: Time stands still in Dadri’s Bisahda village — fons et origo (the original source) of India’s mob lynching template — as this is the month of despair and desolation for octogenarian Asghari, who has been waiting for justice since seven years when misfortune befell her home on September 28, 2015, taking away her son, Mohammad Akhlaq.

Many in the village still hate to hear the name of the 45-year-old, who was mercilessly beaten to death by none other than co-villagers for allegedly slaughtering a calf and consuming and storing the beef in his fridge.

A murderous mob of 15-20 people, infuriated by rumours, broke into his two-storey house at around 10:30 p.m when the family was preparing to go to bed after dinner. They smashed a sewing machine on Mohammad Danish’s head, the 29-year-old younger son of Akhlaq, who fell unconscious, blood oozing out with pieces of flesh (as narrated by sources in the know of the incident).

Presuming him to be dead, they said, the mob’s fury focused on Akhlaq, who was attacked with iron rods and sticks. One of the attackers charged menacingly toward Shaista (27) and tried to molest her. She resisted and batted him away.

It was also reported that a larger mob was waiting for the victims outside, and the time was running out as sirens of police vans began reverberating. They held Akhlaq (who was bleeding profusely but still conscious), stripped him and began dragging him out of the ransacked room by his feet.

As the mob dragged Akhlaq to the ground floor, his head hit each of the 14 concrete steps of the staircase. “This was the worst torture for Akhlaq’s mother, wife and daughter,” they told NewsClick.

While Akhlaq succumbed to injuries, Danish survived the assault had had to undergo multiple complicated brain surgeries. He had a fractured skull with bleeding in the frontal lobe.

An loudspeaker announcement from a local temple — asking residents of the village to gather near a transformer in response to the rumour of cow slaughter — had led to the incident, the sources said.

Seven years later, a cursory walk along the alleys and pathways in the village of Uttar Pradesh’s Gautam Buddha Nagar district still makes one believe that little has changed over the years.

Muslim-sounding names and nomenclatures among the locals sting villagers to the core even now, justifying the fears of the family, who expressed surprise over the sudden change of atmosphere in her village.

This correspondent, as he was saying, “this is Akhlaq’s village” during his piece to camera, was interrupted by a passer-by who wanted the sentence to be corrected. “This is Bisahda, not Akhlaq’s village,” he said furiously.

A SNAIL-PACED TRIAL

Seven years after the killing, trial in the case (FIR No. 241/2015, PS Jarcha), which that began only last year, has now reached the evidence stage. While the first charge sheet was filed by the Uttar Pradesh Police in December 2015, the charges could be framed only in February 2021.

The key eye-witnesses (Asghari, Ikraman — Akhlaq’s wife, Danish and Shaista) were supposed to depose before a fast-track court at Surajpur District and Sessions Court in Greater Noida on March 25, 2021, but could not do so because the court summons could not reach them.

Advocate Yusuf Saifi, the informant lawyer of the deceased family, told NewsClick: “Though the court had issued summons, the police failed to ensure that those were delivered to the family on time. The deposition was then rescheduled for April, but again it could not happen.”

Finally, Akhlaq’s daughter Shaista was able to testify before Additional District Judge (fast track court-1) Ranvijay Pratap Singh from June 16 this year. Her testimonies continued for three days.

Saifi said Shaista would be followed by the deposition of her mother, her brother and grandmother.

“As an eye-witness, she corroborated the sequence of events. She recounted witnessing her father being assaulted and pulled out of the house to be killed. She named the accused who carried out the brutal killing. One of the defence lawyers cross-examined her as well,” the lawyer said.

This story was originally published in newsclick.in . Read the full story here