Image: Maktoob Media

Five people have been arrested in connection with the murder Ibraish Khan, alias Saddam, a 30-year-old municipal employee from Khargone, Madhya Pradesh. On April 10, Ibraish Khan, alias Saddam, had left home for the evening namaz. His body was found eight days after his brother Iqbal said the family had filed a missing persons report.

The body was found reportedly at a morgue in Indore, around 120 km away. This is the first death that Madhya Pradesh police have recorded in the communal violence that broke out in Khargone during a Ram Navami procession.

According to a report in NDTV, the five arrested men are from Anand Nagar-Rahimpura area, though they have not yet been named. Police told the media, “Khan was murdered by seven-eight men on the night of the clashes. The body, found the next day, had remained unidentified and sent to the Indore morgue as there were no freezer facilities in Khargone.”

However, Khan’s brother Iqhlak Khan accused the police of complicity. He said his brother’s body “was mutilated, there were injuries on his face”. He told the media, “People in Anand Nagar attacked my brother with weapons and crushed his head with a stone,” and that his brother was seen “in the police station on April 12.” According to Iqlakh, while there had been no update for days, the police “called us within five minutes, after I had threatened to go to the media [days after Khan went missing]. We had gone to the same M Y Hospital a few days ago and were told there wasn’t a body there then.”

The police announced a Rs 10,000 reward for information on those involved in the Ram Navami day clashes, reported NDTV  adding that 65 First Information Reports have been registered in connection with the violence.

Independent journalists have reported unspeakable horrors and violence uncleashed on the victims, mostly poor Muslim residents. Many of them now say they will leave the area.

This article first appeared on newsclick.in