reportage ishan tankha

20 THE CARAVAN reportage crime and

prejudiceThe BJP and Delhi Police’s hand in the Delhi violence

COVER STORY / POLITICS PRABHJIT SINGH AND ARSHU JOHN

{ONE}

shadab alam began his day as usual on 24 February 2020. He woke up at his house in Old Mustafabad, in northeast Delhi, where he had been living for more than half a decade, and left by 10 am for Samrat Medical Store, on Wazirabad Road, near Brijpuri Chowk. He had worked at the pharmacy for many years, and it was his job to open it every morning. The previous afternoon, the Bharatiya Janata Party leader Kapil Mishra had delivered an incendiary speech near the Jaffrabad metro station, a few kilometres away. Hundreds of women were staging a sit-in at the station to protest the Citizenship (Amendment) Act, passed last year by the Nar- endra Modi government, and the proposed National Register of Citizens. A wave of demonstrations against the CAA and NRC had swept Delhi and the country, led largely by Mus- lims who understood their place in the Indian republic to be threatened by the initiatives. The BJP and other Hindutva groups had vilified the protesters, and in numerous places the demonstrations were met with intimidation and violence. Mishra, with the deputy commissioner of police for northeast Delhi standing beside him, declared that if the Delhi Police did not clear the protests at Jaffrabad and neighbouring Chand Bagh, “we will have to come out on the street.”

SEPTEMBER 2020 21 crime and prejudice · reportage

Alam knew there had been attacks four of his employees. Besides Alam, Ghai was told to come to the police against Muslims in the area the previ- two of the others, Naved and Aqib, were station in nearby Dayalpur to seek their ous night following Mishra’s speech, Muslims. release. He went that day, and on each but he did not think things would esca- A short while later, a group of police- of the next three days, to no effect. In late further. He worked for a few hours men appeared at a gate that connected his affidavit, submitted with Alam’s at the shop, then left for the afternoon to a neighbouring terrace, and tried bail plea, Ghai wrote, “The police offi- prayer at a mosque in the Kasab Pura to climb over it to where Ghai and his cials neither informed about the reason area. Before he headed back, a friend employees were. As soon as he allowed for Shadab’s detention nor provided shahid tantray for the caravan shahid tantray

“When we told the police officials that we needed any information about when he would be released.” Alam’s brother also went to urinate, they would tell us to do it inside the cell to the station numerous times, but he itself,” Shadab Alam said. “We saw others being could do no better. Alam remained in custody at the thrashed while being taken to the bathroom, so Dayalpur police station for four nights, after that none of us would ask.” with 23 other Muslim men picked up from various parts of northeast Delhi. told him over the phone that Muslims them to enter, Ghai later recorded in a “The first night, some policemen came; were being attacked again. Alam took sworn affidavit, the police began round- they asked our names and kept beating a longer route to the pharmacy than ing up the Muslim men. While Ghai us as they did,” Alam said. “They were usual, and returned at around 3 pm. pleaded that his employees had been drunk. They beat us a lot.” There was soon loud shouting in the at work, and had not been involved in The men were not allowed to use the area, and passersby warned of ap- any violence, he noticed that Alam and bathroom. “When we told the police proaching trouble. Anurag Ghai, who Naved were no longer on the terrace. officials that we needed to urinate, owns the pharmacy, shut the shop and He rushed downstairs in time to see the they would tell us to do it inside the cell climbed to the terrace above it with police taking the men away in a van. itself,” Alam said. “We saw others being

22 THE CARAVAN crime and prejudice · reportage thrashed while being taken to the bathroom, so that had been burnt down near Sherpur Chowk, in previous spread: after that none of us would ask.” Khajuri Khas, during the communal violence on During and after The abuse had a clear communal colour. Alam the night of 23 February. It did not name a single the February said the men were forced to chant “Jai Shri Ram”— specific perpetrator. The second, FIR Number 58 violence in Delhi, an overwhelming Hail Lord Ram. At night, he recalled, drunk of 2020, referred only to the violence in general, amount of evidence policemen beating the men boasted about the and also did not accuse anyone by name. The nine emerged to show number of Muslims they had shot that day. remaining men were arrested in connection to the complicity and Mohammed Razi, a resident of Dayalpur, was this document. According to the lawyer, the police participation of the also among the detainees. He was picked up at “were not clear on the names that had to be divid- Delhi Police. around 2.30 pm on 24 February, he later told us, ed into the two FIRs” even when the detainees on his way home from work. “A policeman asked arrived in court. opposite page: Policemen from my name and then hit me with his baton, instruct- Despite claiming that the men had been arrest- the Dayalpur ing me to sit in the police vehicle,” Razi said. “The ed just that day, the police did not want to question police station are police picked up more Muslim boys on way to the them further: the police asked the court to send accused of illegally police station, where we reached at around 4.30 pm.” the men to judicial custody, not to police custody, detaining and Razi, too, described custodial torture that lasted where they could be interrogated. torturing two dozen four consecutive nights. “They hit us so badly they The magistrate Richa Manchanda was not per- Muslim men inside the station premises broke two of their batons on the very first night,” suaded that the men should be released. Manchan- between 24 and 28 Razi said. “They beat us with belts, and I was da passed almost identical orders in the two cases February. asked to urinate on a room heater.” The heater had arising from the two FIRs, and sent the men to an exposed electric coil, and Razi feared that uri- judicial custody till 13 March. nating on it would mean electrocuting his genitals. When accusing the police of custodial torture, “I kept standing silently, prepared in my mind for the lawyers had asked for an immediate medical more thrashing,” he said. Ultimately, the police did examination of the detained men. The police not force him to do it. objected, claiming that they had already been Indian criminal procedure unequivocally pro- examined. Manchanda agreed to the lawyers’ re- hibits the police from detaining anyone for more quest, and the men were examined upon arrival at than 24 hours without producing them before a Delhi’s Mandoli Central Jail. Alam’s examination magistrate. A team of lawyers contacted by the revealed “large bruises on back and buttocks,” and men’s families approached the courts, and on 28 “injury marks on Lt thigh, on Rt thigh upper and February, a magistrate directed the Dayalpur po- buttock.” lice station to account for them. The police finally Even when they were produced in court, the produced the detained men in court later that day. men did not know what crimes they had been ac- The magistrate also directed that the lawyers cused of. “We did not get anything that was being be allowed to meet the men at the station. Five of discussed,” Razi said. It was only after arriving at the 24 detainees had already been taken to court the jail that Razi learnt he had been booked under when the lawyers arrived, but the others, includ- FIR 58. Alam was booked under FIR 57. ing Alam and Razi, were still in lock-up. “We were Alam’s lawyers filed his first bail application shocked to see their condition,” one of the lawyers on 11 March. It included his account of custodial said. “They were stinking, many sat motionless on torture and medical proof of his injuries, as well the floor in the lockup.” as the sworn affidavit from Ghai, backed by CCTV According to the lawyers, the Delhi Police footage from the pharmacy and terrace to corrob- booked the first five detainees taken to the court orate his account of Alam’s detention four days under the Arms Act, which regulates weapon- before the police claimed he was arrested. “It is a ry. The court sent them to judicial custody. The matter of record that the FIR does not contain the lawyers were not at the court when the five were name or any details of any of the alleged accused presented, but they were in attendance when the giving the police a free hand to pick and choose remaining 19 men were produced. The lawyers as to whom they want to arrest,” the application accused the police of custodial torture, which the noted. police denied. The police also denied that the men Hukum Singh, the investigating officer in the had been held in illegal custody, past the 24-hour case, filed a reply on behalf of the Delhi Police. He limit, and claimed that all 19 had been arrested claimed that an unnamed “special informer” had earlier that same day, under two first-information told him about a gathering of rioters at Sherpur reports registered at the Dayalpur police station Chowk at 3 am on 28 February, and that the police on 24 February. arrived on the scene to arrest the accused. Singh Ten of the men were arrested in connection to wrote that the accused had caused “nuisance the first of these, FIR Number 57 of 2020, which in general public,” “tried to disturb the peace,” concerned a chicken shop and numerous vehicles “raised slogans against the country” and “caused

SEPTEMBER 2020 23 crime and prejudice · reportage fire and damaged the property.” He statements have been fabricated—and violence carried especially strong argued that “riots can increase” if the the language in parts of the other two echoes of 1984, when Hindu mobs accused were released. The magis- statements overlapped with them. massacred over three thousand Sikhs trate Vinod Kumar Gautam issued ten In exactly the same language, seven in the national capital, and of 2002, identical orders to deny bail to all those men apparently confessed, “Humne when Hindu mobs murdered at least arrested under FIR 57. wahan khade dusre biradri ke logon ko seven hundred Muslims in Gujarat. In Alam’s lawyers filed another bail dande se maara”—We beat members of both cases, copious reports pointed to application before a sessions judge. the other community with sticks. All political leaders and the police having To add to the earlier submissions and seven apparently declared, “Hum aaj a direct hand in the carnage, only for supporting materials, they argued that bhi jhagde ke iraade se khade the”—We multiple official enquiries to obscure even Singh’s reply did not “disclose were standing there with the intent to their complicity. any basis for the identification of the cause violence. In all nine statements, The February violence in Delhi was accused or any description of his role / the men ended their confessions saying, preceded by years of the stigmatisation acts allegedly committed by him.” The “Mujhse galti ho gayi, maaf kiya jaye”—I of Indian Muslims, stoked by Hindutva judge Sudhir Kumar Jain dismissed the committed a mistake, please forgive forces organised around the BJP’s ide- application, without saying anything me. ological parent, the Rashtriya Swayam- of the police’s failure to produce even a Alam was finally released on bail in sevak Sangh. The anti-CAA demon- single piece of evidence against Alam. mid May, after a judge noted that there strations that so incensed Kapil Mishra Jain wrote in his dismissal order that was no more purpose to keeping the were the most concerted expression yet of popular resistance to the Hindutva “We were given food for the first time on the project. During and after the attacks, an overwhelming amount of evidence twenty-seventh—puri and sabzi,” a 17-year-old emerged to show the complicity and detainee at the Dayalpur police station said. “They participation of the Delhi Police and the BJP. would only give us water.” More than two dozen survivors and witnesses told us they approached Alam was “apprehended at the spot accused in judicial custody now that police stations during and after the vi- and was found involved in large scale the chargesheet had been filed. All ten olence to try and record details of what violence and arson.” men arrested under FIR 57 have been occurred in official complaints. Almost The lawyers then moved the Delhi released, pending trial. The men named all of them were turned away, often High Court seeking bail. The judge in FIR 58 are awaiting trial too, and with abusive language and threats of Mukta Gupta issued a detailed or- many of them are still in prison. implicating them in false cases if they der identifying discrepancies in the persisted. Even when complaints were police’s narrative. The police claimed while alam and the other men were accepted, many complainants said, the to have found two eyewitnesses, yet being held in the Dayalpur sta- police omitted key details about police had provided a statement from only tion, Hindu mobs rampaged across and political complicity, including one. Even that statement, Gupta noted, northeast Delhi, targeting Muslim the names of police officials and BJP “is an omnibus statement and does residents and properties. Over fifty leaders. not identify any accused.” The judge people were killed, the large majority Many Muslims were only able to file found it strange that “no police custody of them Muslims. Some were beaten their complaints at a police help desk remand was sought,” and recorded the to death, others stabbed or shot. In a set up at an Eidgah ground in Musta- defence’s submission that the CCTV video published by The Caravan, one fabad, the site of a temporary relief footage established that Alam and Hindu man remorselessly described camp through most of March. The Naved were detained on 24 Febru- taking part in the attacks and watch- complaints bore the stamps of one or ary. “There is undoubtedly a mystery ing as three Muslim men were burnt many of the police stations covering surrounding the arrest of the petitioner alive. the relevant jurisdictions. A number of and co-accused,” Gupta wrote, “which Thousands of Muslims lost their these complaints were marked as hav- is further fortified by the nature of homes or abandoned them in fear. Mus- ing been copied and sent to the prime injuries received by the petitioner.” lim-owned businesses were specifically minister’s office, the ministry of home Yet, with all these reasons to doubt the targeted—in the aftermath, many of affairs, the office of the lieutenant police’s claims, Gupta dismissed the these stood gutted and burnt beside governor of Delhi, and multiple police bail application. unscathed Hindu-owned businesses stations. The police filed a chargesheet in the right next door. Numerous mosques The Caravan is in possession of case in late April. They attached dis- were set on fire. numerous police complaints filed by closure statements from nine of the ten Targeted, mass communal vio- residents of northeast Delhi since Feb- accused men. Seven of these statements lence has been an endemic feature ruary. Many residents have also given were identical—often an indication that of the Indian republic. The February video interviews reiterating the testi-

24 THE CARAVAN crime and prejudice · reportage sonu mehta / hindustan times / getty images times / getty images / hindustan sonu mehta mony in their complaints, and describing efforts The name of Satya Pal Singh, a member of par- above: The by the police to get them withdrawn. liament representing Baghpat in Uttar Pradesh, Bharatiya Janata One complainant wrote that she saw three recurs in numerous complaints. Apart from him Party leader Kapil senior police officials fire at and kill protesters and Kapil Mishra, the BJP leaders named in the Mishra addressing a rally in 2019. in the neighbourhood of Chand Bagh. Another complaints include Nand Kishore Gujjar, who Multiple complaints wrote that she heard an assistant commissioner represents Loni in the Uttar Pradesh legislative accused Mishra of police assure Kapil Mishra over the phone, assembly. Loni lies just across the state border of inciting and “Don’t worry, we will strew the streets with their separating northeast Delhi and Uttar Pradesh, participating in dead bodies such that it will be remembered for and Baghpat is another 25 kilometres to the north. the anti-Muslim generations.” Yet another complainant described Also named are Mohan Singh Bisht, a member violence that seeing police officials supervise the looting of of the Delhi legislative assembly from northeast engulfed northeast Delhi. a mosque and madrasa before they were burnt Delhi’s Karawal Nagar, and Jagdish Pradhan, a down, and overhearing instructions for looted former MLA who lost his seat of Mustafabad in money to be taken to the home of the BJP leader the assembly elections held a few weeks before Satya Pal Singh. the violence.

SEPTEMBER 2020 25 crime and prejudice · reportage

The police officials named in the to register them, and to suppress key Police has accused the alleged con- complaints include Ved Prakash Surya, details and names. spirators of committing offences under the deputy commissioner who was The Delhi Police has also failed to the draconian Unlawful Activities standing beside Mishra when he made investigate many crucial aspects of (Prevention) Act. Nineteen people had his speech, as well as Anuj Kumar and the attacks. Numerous complainants been arrested in the conspiracy case Dinesh Sharma, both additional com- have described how Hindu mobs by late August, and only one of them missioners of police. Tarkeshwar Singh, fired guns, threw petrol bombs and had been released on bail. shaheen ahmed for the caravan shaheen ahmed for the caravan the station house officer at the Day- pelted stones from Mohan Nursing The anti-Muslim violence in Gujarat alpur police station during the violence, Home and Hospital, a private insti- in 2002 occurred under the watch of is also named, as is RS Meena, the SHO tution near the Bhajanpura police Narendra Modi, then the state’s chief of the nearby Bhajanpura police station station, in the presence of the police. minister. After the bloodshed, police at the time. Videos have surfaced showing Hindu officials who tried to prevent violence The Supreme Court has repeated- assailants firing from the roof of the in their jurisdictions were punished, ly made clear that the police have an nursing home at the same time that a as were those who accused Modi obligation to register FIRs in response Muslim man sheltering atop a building and the BJP of having a hand in the to any complaints that describe a opposite to it was shot dead. Yet, the violence. Police officials who let the cognisable offence, yet none of the BJP police did not investigate the hospital mobs have their way and defended the leaders named in these complaints in the case. political leadership against charges have had FIRs registered against them. Instead of investigating Hindu mobs of culpability were rewarded. At the None of the police officials named and complaints of police and politi- time, the Gujarat police answered have seen FIRs against them either, or cal complicity, the Delhi Police has directly to the state’s home minister, faced internal investigation or action. used suspect evidence to implicate Amit Shah. The Delhi Police answers The police have tried to defend their hundreds of Muslim residents, and to to the union government, and specif- inaction by arguing that the complaints claim that civil activists, anti-CAA ically to the ministry of home affairs. were delayed, but have ignored the fact protesters and prominent Muslim The present head of the government that several complaints describe how figures conspired to instigate the is Narendra Modi. The union home the police pressured complainants not violence. The special cell of the Delhi minister is Amit Shah.

26 THE CARAVAN crime and prejudice · reportage one of the detainees at the Dayalpur police station The detainees were not allowed to go to the opposite page: was a juvenile, a 17-year-old Muslim named in FIR bathroom. “If someone kept asking, then the Ikram, standing with 58. His description of his treatment by the police police would beat them with sticks on their way his wife and son, said closely corroborates the accounts of Alam and Razi. to the bathroom,” the 17-year-old said. “I urinated he was among four Muslim men tortured “On 24 February, I was returning from work in my pants several times.” He did not need to def- at the Khajuri Khas when I was stopped by police officials,” he said. ecate, he explained, “because we had not eaten.” police station on the “They asked me my name, beat me with sticks and After several days in detention, “we were given night of 24 February. put me in their vehicle. There were three or four food for the first time on the twenty-seventh—puri A tailor by profession, other people in it already—all of them Muslim.” and sabzi. They would only give us water.” The de- Ikram said he was At the Dayalpur station, the men were told to tainees got just “two bottles of two litres” to share falsely implicated by the police, and had wait in lockup. The beating soon began. “They between them each day. The young man added to spend over three would just come and start beating us with their that the detainees “used to feel cold at night, but months in jail before belts,” the 17-year-old said. “We told them that we there was nothing to cover ourselves with.” he was released on were just doing our work. They knew this.” The On the night of 27 February, the detainees were bail. beatings were so severe that the police “broke taken for a medical examination, at northeast their belts and sticks.” He described being beaten Delhi’s GTB Hospital. “It was conducted in batches below: Wazirabad Road, which divides with his legs tied, and left with marks all across of five,” the 17-year-old recalled. “The doctor just the neighbourhoods his back and body. looked at my face. He did not ask me anything about of Yamuna Vihar When one man lost consciousness, “they whether I was in pain, or if anything was hurting. and Chand Bagh, poured water on him to bring him back and said, He didn’t examine me at all. Then he wrote some- witnessed violence ‘Saale, drama kar raha hai’”—Bastard, you’re being thing on a piece of paper, and then we left.” between Muslims dramatic. “Then they beat him again.” Several When presented in court the following day, the protesting the people were “were taken upstairs, and they said young man was crying. When the lawyers tried to Citizenship (Amendment) Act they were stripped and beaten.” The beatings con- comfort him, “I told them I wasn’t doing anything, and a Hindu mob tinued until 28 February, when the detainees were I was just returning from work and they picked that stood alongside presented in court. me up.” The lawyers got him to call his family, policemen.

SEPTEMBER 2020 27 crime and prejudice · reportage

Iqrar recalled hearing an assailant tell the BJP Muslim by his skullcap. Mushtaqin said the policemen pointed to the mob and MP Jagdish Pradhan on the phone, “Jagdish bhai, asked him, “Should we hand you over we’ve caught one well-built kattua ... I’ve called to them?” The police forced him to hold an axe and asked the mob to make a for petrol, the camera is ready, I will send the full video, he recalled, “to prove that the video on your other number.” Muslims are resorting to rioting and killings.” Mushtaqin was taken into “and my mother came to court with my using explosives, and asked a court for custody at Khajuri Khas. Aadhaar card.” After the magistrate more time to complete their investiga- At the station, Mushtaqin said, he was examined it, the 17-year-old was taken tion against the others accused. beaten with “a long, huge leather belt” to juvenile court, and then to a juvenile The police are also accused of the inscribed with the words, “Aao milo home. custodial torture of four Muslim de- sajna” and “Phir kab miloge”— “Come “People treated me kindly there,” tainees at the station in Khajuri Khas meet me, love” and “When will we meet he recalled. He was released from the on the night of 24 February. Mushta- again?” Ikram, a tailor who was also home in late March. “I don’t go out qin, an auto driver, told us he had been held at the Khajuri Khas station that anymore. I am scared that they’ll pick standing on the street at a dargah in night, said he had been tortured too. me up again.” In early August, the Delhi Bhajanpura that afternoon, when he Ikram and Mushtaqin both said that Police filed a chargesheet against the was attacked by policemen and a Hindu two others, Sarfaraz and Aman, were 17-year-old, accusing him of rioting and mob. He said he was identified as a also held and tortured with them.

28 THE CARAVAN crime and prejudice · reportage

The four men were named together in a subse- and managed to escape from the back door to save opposite page: quent FIR. Mushtaqin and Ikram said they spent ourselves.” Multiple over three months in prison before they were Mumtaz identified several individuals moving complainants released on bail. towards the shop with weapons. “My brother described a savage assault by the police Ikram said the FIR accused them of burning saw this, my staff saw this, they can all testify to and Hindu mobs down a police booth at Bhajanpura. The Cara- it,” he said. “They were holding pistols, swords, against protesters van earlier reported that Hindu mobs burnt down lathis, iron rods, petrol bombs—they had all sorts at Chand Bagh. a petrol station and a mazar—shrine—near the of weapons. I looked through the back entrance They noted that Bhajanpura police booth. There have been no re- and saw that they were looting my cash box. When the police also tore ports of the police booth itself being burnt down. I went in to try and stop them, they put a gun to down posters of my head.” The mob set his shop on fire at around Bhimrao Ambedkar, Savitribai Phule, {TWO} 10 pm. Bhagat Singh, alam and the other men named in FIR 57 are “I must have dialed 100”—the police help- Mohandas Gandhi accused of burning down Sanjar Chicken Cor- line—“at least a hundred times that night,” and others at a ner—incorrectly identified as “Punjabi Chicken Mumtaz said. “My brothers also called. But we got protest site. Corner” in the FIR. The shop’s owner, Mohammad no response. We urged them to come quickly, told left: On the morning of 24 February, police at the Chand Bagh protest site were accompanied by civilians “who had cloths tied around their necks and were armed with lathis, sticks, swords, stones, guns and bombs,” according to one complaint by a resident of the area.

Mumtaz, described the circumstances surround- them that there is a large mob of rioters, many of ing the incident. His account raises more damning them are locals.” The police and the fire brigade questions about the Delhi Police’s conduct—in only arrived on the scene after Mumtaz’s shop was relation to FIR 57, and in relation to the role of the burnt down. police and BJP leaders in the violence. Mumtaz said a police official visited his house at Since 23 February was a Sunday, Mumtaz said, around 2.30 am that night to tell him that another there was a rush of customers at the shop. “I saw official, Hukum Singh, had been assigned as the that at Sherpur Chowk, around one hundred and investigating officer in the case. The official asked fifty metres from my shop, there was a crowd of Mumtaz to go meet Singh at the Dayalpur station around three hundred to four hundred people.” immediately. But when Mumtaz went to the sta- Mumtaz heard the crowd chanting “Jai Shri Ram,” tion, Hukum Singh told him he was in a meeting “Mohan Singh Bisht zindabad” and “Kapil Mishra and asked him to return the next day. zindabad.” At 10 am on 24 February, Mumtaz received a At around 8 pm, “a crowd came from there and call from Tarkeshwar Singh, the station house of- began pelting stones at my shop,” Mumtaz contin- ficer of the Dayalpur police station at the time. The ued. “My staff and I ducked underneath the tables SHO told him that items from his shop were lying

SEPTEMBER 2020 29 crime and prejudice · reportage

above: Ved Prakash on the road outside it, Mumtaz recalled, and he Maqbool motorcycle-wala, he is a mechanic and a Surya, the deputy was told they would be removed unless he picked Muslim,” Mumtaz said. “They stole all the valua- commissioner of them up. When he arrived at the shop, Mumtaz bles from his shop. Then they set it on fire.” police for Delhi’s found the SHO and other police officials already at On 2 March, Mumtaz returned to the Dayalpur northeast district, the site. station to file his complaint. “When I lodged a stood beside Kapil Mishra as the BJP Mumtaz described how he heard a police official complaint identifying members of the mob by leader threatened approach Tarkeshwar and say, “Sir, there is a call name, they refused to accept it,” he said. “So I filed to clear out the from parliamentarian Satpal-ji”—Satya Pal Singh, a simple complaint in which I just wrote that mobs anti-CAA protests who was the police commissioner of Mumbai chanting ‘Jai Shri Ram’ set my shop on fire.” But in Jaffrabad and before he entered politics with the BJP. Mumtaz the police told him to remove even the chant, and Chand Bagh. recalled hearing Tarkeshwar say into the phone, to describe the perpetrators only as unidentified “Theek hai netaji Satpalji, aaj koi bhi nahi bachega rioters. zinda”—Yes, Satpal sir, nobody will be left alive “The police did not register the FIR according to today. what I wanted to say,” Mumtaz said. “They did it Mumtaz said Tarkeshwar left after speaking in accordance with what they wanted.” On 2 July, with Satya Pal. Soon after this, a mob approached Mumtaz sent a fresh complaint identifying the the area from Sherpur Chowk. Mumtaz recog- individuals who burnt his shop and detailing all nised its members as locals from the area, and the allegations against Bisht and the police, to SN identified several of them as members of the RSS. Shrivastava, the commissioner of the Delhi Police. “I know each and every one of them,” he said. In his letter to the commissioner, Mumtaz The mob began breaking the locks of Mus- wrote that when he was returning home after lim-owned businesses in the area and looting seeing his shop burnt down on the night of 23

them. “They broke the lock to Maqbool’s shop— February, he came across Mohan Singh Bisht in times / getty images / hindustan sonu mehta

30 THE CARAVAN crime and prejudice · reportage conversation with a group of associ- “Kapil Mishra was brandishing his gun in the air ates. Mumtaz overheard the BJP legis- lator telling them, “Samay aa gaya hai and telling all the attackers, ‘Don’t leave these ki inn kattuo ko dhund-dhund kar maar fuckers. Today we will teach them such a lesson de”—The time has come to track these Muslims down and kill them. (“Kat- that they will forget how to protest,’” Rizvi wrote tua” is a slur for Muslims.) Bisht told in his complaint. the group to also burn Muslims’ homes and cars, and to loot and burn their One of the complaints—stamped as on a pedestal?’ His accomplices shout- shops. Mumtaz wrote that he heard received by the home ministry and the ed in response, ‘Absolutely not.’ Then Bisht say this was to make sure “that prime minister’s office, as well as the Kapil Mishra said, ‘These Muslims generations will remember,” and will offices of Delhi’s lieutenant general were first protesting CAA and NRC, never have the courage to protest the and commissioner of police—was filed and now they even started protesting CAA again or “even raise their heads on 24 February. The complainant, for reservation. Now we will have to against us.” Mohammad Jami Rizvi, a resident teach them a lesson.’” On the morning of 25 February, of northeast Delhi’s Yamuna Vihar, After hearing this, Rizvi wrote, Mumtaz also wrote in the complaint, wrote that at around 2 pm on 23 Mishra’s accomplices began throwing he and other Muslim locals stepped out February, Mishra appeared before a stones at protesters in Kardampuri, of their homes to assess the damage. crowd of around twenty-five people in and “in the presence of the police, they A mob spotted them and charged. As Kardampuri—another site of ongoing began stopping cars on the road. They Mumtaz’s group ran to the safety of anti-CAA sit-ins. The protest had more identified the vehicles of Muslims and their lane, someone in the mob shouted, people than usual that day on account Dalits, and while abusing them and “You have survived for now, but watch of a Bharat Bandh, or all-India strike, calling them anti-nationals, mullahs, what happens in two hours. Not a sin- called by Dalit groups to protest a and using casteist words against the gle one of you will be left alive.” Supreme Court judgment diluting Dalits, they beat them up and de- A little while later, Mumtaz wrote, reservations in promotions for public stroyed their cars.” the mob reached the lane, accompanied posts. Meanwhile, Rizvi added, “Kapil by Tarkeshwar Singh. Bisht soon ar- Rizvi wrote that the crowd shouted: Mishra was brandishing his gun in the rived to join them, Mumtaz noted, and air and telling all the attackers, ‘Don’t the mob broke into chants of “Mohan Kapil Mishra tum lath bajao, hum leave these fuckers. Today we will Singh Bisht zindabad.” tumhare saath hai teach them such a lesson that they will Mumtaz recorded Bisht’s address to Lambe-lambe lath bajao, hum tum- forget how to protest.’” the mob in his complaint. “Finish the hare saath hai The second complaint was filed by job fast,” Bisht told them, according to Kheech-kheech ke lath bajao, hum Mohammed Ilyas, a resident of Yamu- the document. “These Muslims should tumhare saath hai na Vihar. Ilyas lodged his complaint not have the guts to live here after Mullo par tum lath bajao, hum tum- on 17 March, at the Eidgah relief camp, this.” Bisht and the mob then proceed- hare saath hai and it was stamped by the Dayalpur ed into the lane, throwing petrol bombs Chamaaro par tum lath bajao, hum police station. “On the afternoon of and stones at the houses. “I saw Mohan tumhare saath hai 23 February 2020, Kapil Mishra and Singh Bisht take a bomb and throw it (Kapil Mishra, you beat them with his accomplices stopped the cars of into my house,” Mumtaz wrote. As he sticks, we are with you Muslims and Dalits on Kardampuri watched from a nearby terrace, “there Beat them with long sticks, we are road and started destroying them,” was a loud explosion from the house, with you Ilyas wrote. “The police officers stood and then they broke the lock to the door Beat them with full force, we are there and assisted them, after which and everyone went inside.” While the with you the atmosphere in the area took a turn mob looted the house, Mumtaz added, Beat the Muslims, we are with you for the worse. After this, the DCP Ved Bisht left the scene. Beat the Dalits, we are with you) Prakash Surya entered different lanes and warned the protesters, ‘If you do mumtaz is one of many witnesses to Mishra then addressed the crowd. not end this protest, then there will be describe the complicity of the police Rizvi wrote that “Kapil Mishra and his such violent riots here that all of you and BJP leaders in official complaints. accomplices, who were carrying guns, will be killed.’” Just hours after Kapil Mishra’s speech swords and tridents, spears, sticks, Rizvi quoted Surya in the com- on 23 February threatening anti-CAA stones and glass bottles et cetera, plaint: “We have received orders from protesters in Jaffrabad, the BJP leader were chanting casteist and communal above to ensure that there are no pro- incited a rampage by an armed mob slogans,” and walked towards the pro- tests after two days. If anyone protests, less than two kilometres away, in Kar- test site. “Mishra then addressed the there will be such riots here that both dampuri, according to two complaints crowd, ‘Those who clean the toilets of you and the protests will be killed. You lodged with the Delhi Police. our homes, should we now place them will all be killed.”

SEPTEMBER 2020 31 crime and prejudice · reportage right: One complainant wrote that he saw Mohan Singh Bisht, a BJP leader and a member of the Delhi legislative assembly, throw an explosive at his house and instruct a Hindu mob, “These Muslims should not have the guts to live here after this.” opposite page left: Jagdish Pradhan, a former Delhi MLA from the Mustafabad constituency, was among several BJP leaders accused of involvement in the communal violence that swept the national capital. opposite page right: Satya Pal

Singh, a member times / getty images / hindustan sonu mehta of parliament from Uttar Pradesh, the next day, as violence escalated across north- ent by 10 am, when she reached the protest site. served as the police east Delhi, there was a particularly violent crack- “The police were telling the protesters, ‘Today is commissioner of Mumbai before he down at the Chand Bagh protest site. Like at many your last day, you will be given your full freedom.’” resigned to join the sit-ins across the country, the protests here were (This was a taunt referring to a popular chant at BJP. At least two largely led by local women. Numerous complaints anti-CAA protests calling for azadi, or freedom.) complainants said detailed what witnesses saw. Parveen also noted that there were men with the they overheard Rubina Bano, a Chand Bagh resident, began police carrying sticks, tridents, grenades, swords Tarkeshwar Singh, her complaint, “I am three months pregnant and and stones. “They were chanting the slogan, ‘Desh the station-house officer of the despite that I have been attending the protests in ke gaddaron ko, goli maaro saalo ko,’” she added. Dayalpur police Chand Bagh, to save the constitution of this coun- “Many police officers were carrying two guns. station, receiving try and protect the future of my children against The Dayalpur SHO was threatening us women, instructions from the unconstitutional and illegal laws of this coun- ‘We have told you many times to put an end to Satya Pal during the try.” She wrote that she reached the protest site at the protests but you did not listen. Now we have violence. around 11 am to discover the area filled with police received orders from above not to let anyone go.’” personnel, including senior officers such as Anuj Bano’s complaint noted the exact moment that Kumar, an assistant commissioner of police from the police and the mob attacked. “We are peace- the Gokulpuri police station, and Tarkeshwar fully protesting here, so why are you addressing Singh. Bano wrote that the police were arguing us in this manner?” Bano wrote that she asked the with the women at the site, using abusive language ACP, Kumar. “He responded with abuses and said, and warning them that they would be killed if they ‘Kapil Mishra and his associates will free you from continued to protest. She also noted that the police your life.’” At that moment, she stated, Tarkesh- were accompanied by civilians “who had cloths war rushed to Kumar to hand him a phone, saying tied around their necks and were armed with that Mishra was on the line. “The ACP was saying lathis, sticks, swords, stones, guns and bombs.” ‘ji, ji’ while talking to Mishra and then as he was Other complainants corroborated Bano’s cutting the call he said, ‘Don’t worry, we will account. Sabir Ali, another Chand Bagh resident, strew the streets with their dead bodies such that wrote in his complaint that a large police force, it will be remembered for generations.’” As soon as including Tarkeshwar, was at the site that morn- Kumar cut the call, Bano wrote, Kumar turned to ing. Imrana Parveen, a resident of New Musta- Tarkeshwar and other police personnel and com-

fabad, wrote that the police contingent was pres- manded, “Maaro saalo ko”—Beat the fuckers. / indian express prem nath pandey

32 THE CARAVAN crime and prejudice · reportage

Savage, one-sided violence ensued. that day. The police officials are killing According to the complaint, the men Ali noted, “I saw the Bhajanpura SHO us. Then I ran away to save my life.” who stopped him and the police were attack the women protesters with lathis, Parveen wrote that the “police of- armed with swords, sticks and guns. and then the other SHO”—RS Mee- ficers who had guns started shooting He told them his name was Raju, Iqrar na—“and police personnel also launched the men” among the protesters. She wrote, and joined them in shouting a brutal attack on the women.” also identified another ACP, Dinesh “Jai Shri Ram,” but was unable to “The police and the mob began Sharma of the Bhajanpura police hide his Muslim identity. The group attacking the women,” Bano wrote. station, whom she accused of leading removed his wallet from his pocket, “They entered the pandal”—the sit-in and encouraging the violence. “When and saw his real name. They began tent—“abusing the protesters and said, our pandal caught fire in the attack thrashing him, Iqrar wrote, while the ‘You wanted freedom, now we will and some 40-50 women ran for their police told them, “Give this one his beat the Jai Bhim out of you.’” (“Jai lives into a cement godown, I saw full freedom too.” Bhim,” a slogan invoking Bhimrao ACP Dinesh Sharma shouting at the One man who appeared to be Ambedkar, was popular with the mob, ‘Satpal sansad ji ne jo kaha tha leading the group stopped the others protesters.) The attackers tore down aaj woh karke dikhana hai’”—We have from killing him, Iqrar stated. “Nand posters of Ambedkar, Mohandas Gan- to do what the parliamentarian Satpal Kishore Gujjar ji had said to make dhi, Savitribai Phule and others that told us to. Parveen stated that Sharma videos of two–four of them being had been put up at the site. “ACP Anuj continued, “Aage badho, daro mat, po- burnt alive,” the leader said, according Kumar tore down Babasaheb Ambed- lice tumhare saath hai, ek ek ko chun to the complaint. “One of the others kar’s poster and stomped and rubbed kar zindagi se azadi deni hai”—Proceed then pointed to a group of four or five his shoe on it,” Bano stated. forward, don’t fear, the police is with dead bodies covered in blood and said, Other witnesses noted the insult to you, pick them one by one and give ‘Let’s cut him up like those four.’” But, Ambedkar as well. “They threw the them freedom from their lives. Iqrar noted, the leader disagreed. “He pictures of Savitribai Phule, Ashfaqul is well built,” he wrote that the man Khan, Abdul Kalam Azad and our Ya- one of the most chilling complaints said. “A video of him burning would seen Sharif into the fire,” a resident of was filed on 8 March at the Bhajan- last longer.” Chand Bagh, who requested anonym- pura police station by Iqrar, a resi- The complaint stated that the leader ity, wrote in her complaint. “Then I dent of New Seelampur. On 25 Feb- sent two of the men to get petrol. As saw SHO Dayalpur (Shri Talkeshwar), ruary, as Iqrar was crossing Ghonda the rest waited, the leader instructed SHO Bhajanpura (Shri Meena) and Chowk, near Yamuna Vihar, on his one of them to phone Gujjar, the BJP ACP (Anuj Kumar) firing bullets at the scooter, he was stopped by roughly MLA from Loni, while the others men over there which led to the death eight or ten men, who were stand- continued to slap, punch and kick of some. I was frightened after seeing ing with a group of police personnel Iqrar. The man trying to make the call that, and wondered who would save us around twice that size. informed the leader that it was not satya pal malik pal satya

SEPTEMBER 2020 33 crime and prejudice · reportage shaheen ahmed for the caravan above: Iqrar was going through. Iqrar wrote that the man clarified, In his complaint, Iqrar described how his broth- crossing Ghonda “I am calling on the other number that sahib had er had informed him that an FIR had been regis- Chowk on 25 given but it’s not getting connected.” tered at the Bhajanpura police station, and that February, when The leader told another man to call Pradhan an inquiry into the case was pending because the he was stopped instead, Iqrar continued. The call was connected, police had not been able to record his statement. by a group of men standing with the and the leader spoke to Pradhan, the former MLA He noted that once he had recovered enough to police. According from Mustafabad. Iqrar’s complaint stated what he be able to speak, by 8 March, he got his statement to Iqrar’s police overheard: “Jagdish bhai, we’ve caught one well- typed up, then signed and added his thumbprint complaint, the built kattua. We cut the fucker down but he’s still to the document. “Please add this statement to the group attacked got a lot of life left in him. I’ve called for petrol, the FIR and conduct a criminal investigation against him with swords camera is ready, I will send the full video on your the perpetrators,” he wrote. and rods after realising he was other number.” Naeem Ali, a sub-inspector at the Bhajanpu- Muslim, with Around this point, as described in the com- ra police station and the original investigating encouragement plaint, Iqrar’s assailants saw two men with beards officer in the case, confirmed in June that Iqrar’s from policemen. on a motorbike, and rushed towards them with complaint had been “annexed in the file,” but said their swords raised. Iqrar used the distraction to he had no more information on the investigation opposite page: flee for his life. because he was on sick leave. When asked again After Iqrar escaped his assailants, he The police registered an FIR in connection to in August, he said the case had been transferred was admitted to Lok the attack on Iqrar, but it did not contain any de- to Narendra, an assistant sub-inspector at the Nayak Jai Prakash tails about his assailants. The document was filed Bhajanpura station. Hospital. There, his without the police taking any information from Narendra told us that nobody had been arrest- elder brother took Iqrar himself, and appeared to be based entirely ed in the case so far. “Till we are able to find any this photograph of on a medico-legal case registered at the Lok Nayak viral video, some proof, till then we can’t arrest his injuries. Jai Prakash hospital where he was admitted after anyone,” he said. Even so, he insisted the police the attack. “have done a lot.” He cited notices issued to media

34 THE CARAVAN crime and prejudice · reportage organisations asking for any evidence The next afternoon, Sameena wrote, Mumtaz continued, “Tarkeshwar they may have of the crime. the men came back and threatened her then gestured to one of his colleagues, When we pointed out that Iqrar again. “I told them that I would register who handed the SHO a gun with a wide said the police had not visited him to a complaint against them,” she wrote. barrel. He then fired the gun at the ter- record his statement, Narendra made “They responded, ‘If you lodge a com- race of our house, which filled the area a startling admission. “The police had plaint against us, we will kill you and with smoke. Then he fired several more already written his statement based on your family.’” shots, which contained tear gas.” the FIR,” he said. The police did not register an FIR A bunch of tempos arrived at the site, Pradhan has also been named in based on Sameena’s complaint, just as carrying valuables looted from nearby another complaint filed by Sameena, with most complaints that named BJP shops, according to the complaint. In a resident of Babu Nagar in Dayalpur. leaders. the presence of Tarkeshwar and other Her complaint was received by the police officials, Mumtaz wrote, the mob Dayalpur police station, the home across numerous complaints, the began entering and looting houses in ministry, and the offices of the Delhi Delhi Police are accused of murder, the area, and loading the tempos with police commissioner and lieutenant assault, incitement to violence and more valuables. general. criminal intimidation. The accusations Tarkeshwar has also been accused On 7 March, a large group of women involve multiple officials, including of further violence in Chand Bagh on went back to the Chand Bagh protest senior officers, but no single police- 25 February, in addition to his alleged site to try and resume their demon- man is featured as prominently, in the participation in the attack on the area’s stration against the CAA. “There were complaints accessed by The Caravan, as sit-in the previous day. According to a lot of police officials already present Tarkeshwar Singh. Parveen’s complaint, “On 25.02.2020, there,” Sameena wrote. “They said Mumtaz’s complaint, besides its de- I went to the burnt pandal with some that the DCP had ordered them to scription of Tarkeshwar taking instruc- other women, laid down a bedsheet, put shoot anyone whom they saw protest- tions over the phone from Satya Pal on up a photo of Baba Bhimrao Ambedkar, ing. Then the police took down our 24 February, also detailed the SHO’s and sat down again.” The attempt to re- names and addresses, and all the wom- actions when he arrived at Mumtaz’s sume the protest was short-lived. Soon, en returned to their respective homes lane with the mob on the morning of a mob began throwing stones at the out of fear.” 25 February. Tarkeshwar was already women, and they came under fire from Two hours later, Sameena’s com- with the mob before Bisht arrived to the terrace of Mohan Nursing Home. plaint stated, a group of four or five join it, Mumtaz noted, and he heard the Parveen wrote, “The Dayalpur SHO, men barged into her house. They mob chanting “Delhi Police zindabad.” who was present there, tore the photo identified themselves as police officials, He then heard Tarkeshwar tell the of Baba Bhimrao Ambedkar into pieces, but wore civilian clothes and sported mob, “Don’t let even one of them escape threw it away and said, ‘This Bhim can- tilaks. She recognised some of them as today.” not even save himself, how will he save Pradhan’s associates, and had earlier you all?’” Then, Tarkeshwar “joined the seen them with the BJP MP. “Even rioters in attacking us with lathis and though Jagdish Pradhan has gotten so sticks. Many women suffered injuries many of your people killed, you still during the attack.” want to protest?” they said, according Ilyas’s complaint noted that later to her complaint. “Now you watch. We on 25 February, around the time of will have you picked up and thrown in the evening prayer, police personnel prison for life and killed in encounters. joined a mob that attacked and set fire Only then will you come to your senses. to the Farooqia Masjid in Mustafabad’s You don’t know the power of Jagdish Brijpuri area. The Caravan earlier Pradhan.” reported that at least two survivors of The men returned to her house at the attack said they saw police person- around 9.30 pm that night, Sameena nel set the mosque ablaze. The next wrote. “When I tried to stop them, they morning, Ilyas wrote, he went to the hit me on my chest and said, ‘Move or Farooqia Masjid to see the damage. He we will rape you,’ and began hurling found Tarkeshwar and other police of- abuses at me,” she stated. “I immedi- ficials already at the scene, along with ately shouted and a crowd gathered one Chawla, identified as a local store- outside. On seeing the crowd, the men owner and a powerful figure in the drew their guns out and raised them area. The police officials and Chawla’s at the people outside. They said, ‘Move associates began destroying CCTV from here or we will shoot you.’ While cameras in the area, the complaint pointing the gun at the crowd, the men noted, and ransacking the mosque and

ran away from there.” courtesy abrar ahmed an adjacent madrasa. Ilyas wrote that

SEPTEMBER 2020 35 crime and prejudice · reportage below: Mohammed he pleaded with Tarkeshwar to intervene, but the we reached out to the police officials named in Ilyas, a resident of SHO only responded, “I told you so many times this story to ask for their responses to the alle- Yamuna Vihar, said to put a stop to your protests but then you didn’t gations against them. (We were unable to obtain he witnessed police listen.” any contact details for Tarkeshwar Singh, despite officials ransack the Chawla then approached Tarkeshwar with a numerous inquiries to the Dayalpur police station, Farooqia Masjid in Mustafabad’s phone, Ilyas stated, and said there was a call for the Delhi police control room and the offices of the Brijpuri area, as him from Satya Pal Singh. The complaint noted DCPs for both northeast and central Delhi.) None well as an adjacent that Tarkeshwar spoke to the BJP leader, then of them sent back an individual response. In June, madrasa, on the instructed Chawla to collect looted money from when The Caravan first reported on the com- morning of 26 the mosque and the madrasa and take it to Satya plaints against the Delhi Police and BJP leaders, February. Pal’s house. “Chawla put all the money from the we emailed the commissioner of the Delhi Police, almirahs into one bag,” Ilyas wrote. “The bag was SN Shrivastava, and the force’s public-relations of- filled to the brim and the cash could be seen at ficer at the time, MS Randhawa, for details about the top.” any investigations into the complaints and any Ilyas noted that Tarkeshwar then told him, action taken against the accused officers. “Explain to all the Muslims to leave this neigh- Neither Shrivastava nor Randhawa respond- bourhood and run away, or else they will all be ed to the emails, but the Delhi Police posted a killed.” Police personnel took a can of petrol from rejoinder signed by Randhawa on Twitter. It Tarkeshwar’s car, he continued, and carried it in- stated, without substantiation, that the report on side the madrasa. After the “police personnel set allegations against BJP leaders was “a script full of the madrasa on fire, and as the smoke billowed, imagination and concoction, based on malicious, Chawla and the police force left the site.” ill-informed and unverified facts.” The police After the violence, Tarkeshwar Singh was did not deny that they received the complaints transferred from his post as the SHO at Dayalpur, described in the article, or that they failed to act and RS Meena was transferred from his post as on them despite the unequivocal requirement the SHO at Bhajanpura. The ACPs and the DCP that all complaints of cognisable offences must be for northeast Delhi remained in place. followed by FIRs. The rejoinder did not respond ishan tankha

36 THE CARAVAN crime and prejudice · reportage specifically to the allegation that var- The police did not deny that they received the ious BJP leaders had been involved in the violence, or deny that none of the complaints against BJP leaders, or that they BJP leaders named in the complaints failed to act on them despite the unequivocal had faced any investigation or action. A large portion of the rejoinder was requirement that all complaints of cognisable focussed on the fact that police officials offences must be followed by FIRs. had been injured during the violence—a fact at no point disputed in the report. said he was unwell. We sent questions the roof of Saptarishi Ispat and Alloys, Alongside this misdirection, the police for Satya Pal over WhatsApp, as Chaud- an iron-and-steel shop and godown in sidestepped the thrust of the report: hary asked, but received no reply. Chand Bagh that stands on Wazira- that the Delhi Police received but Kapil Mishra responded, “Caravan is bad Road across from Mohan Nursing ignored complaints naming BJP leaders a jehadi magazine and you are spread- Home. At 8.53 pm, he was declared accused of participating in or orches- ing lies to protect Islamic terrorists brought dead at GTB Hospital. A video trating attacks. In effect, the rejoinder involved in Delhi Riots. I don’t entertain recorded from atop the Saptarishi build- demonstrated that, as described in the Terrorist sympathizers.” ing at the time he was shot showed a report, the Delhi Police had buried com- The Indian Express has reported that mob shooting a rifle from the terrace of plaints against BJP leaders. Brijmohan Sharma, a local BJP leader Mohan Nursing Home. The Delhi Police In August, we emailed a detailed from northeast Delhi’s Brahmapuri have arrested six Muslims in the case, questionnaire to the public-relations area, was named in a police chargesheet without being able to identify which of officer of the Delhi Police covering the on an accusation of murder connected the accused men shot Shahid. allegations against the force described to the violence. The Quint has reported The police’s chargesheet in the case in this story. We also asked about Hindu that the police arrested 16 people from made numerous curious assertions. The mobs’ access to guns and explosives, neighbouring North Ghonda for murder police claimed that, on the afternoon of and about the role of Mohan Nursing and rioting—all of them members, 24 February, a large group of anti-CAA Home. Eish Singhal, who had replaced post-holders or associates of the Rash- protesters had blocked Wazirabad Road Randhawa as the public-relations triya Swayamsevak Sangh. There have and was attacking police forces when officer, called us within minutes of the been no further reports of BJP leaders a Hindu mob joined the violence and email to say he could not answer our or members of Hindutva groups facing forced the protesters to retreat. The questions because he was appointed af- action for the February carnage. chargesheet stated that Shahid and ter the violence. He directed us instead several other Muslim protesters then to Alok Kumar, the joint commissioner {THREE} climbed to the roof of the Saptarishi responsible for eastern Delhi. Kumar multiple complainants described a building to attack the Hindu mob from did not answer our calls, and did not Hindu mob firing guns and throwing there. The police stated that Shahid was return them or reply to questions sent stones and petrol bombs from the roof- shot dead by another Muslim protester to him. top of Mohan Nursing Home at Chand on the terrace. We also contacted all the BJP leaders Bagh on 24 February. Imrana Parveen The chargesheet did not provide an named in this story to ask about the wrote that, as armed police officers explanation for how or why this hap- accusations and any possible investi- began shooting at the demonstrators, pened. None of the disclosure state- gations against them. Jagdish Pradhan the “staff of Mohan Nursing Home ments by the accused persons confess denied any involvement in the vio- started firing bullets at us, which killed to Shahid’s murder. According to the lence, and added that he is “the kind many protesters on the spot.” Parveen’s chargesheet, all six accused men stated to support everyone, whether they are complaint was registered under Entry that they were pelting stones and firing Hindu or Muslim.” As for the multiple Number 53 in the daily diary of the at the police when they were forced to instances where his name comes up in Dayalpur police station, and stamped retreat because of tear gas and increas- the complaints, he replied, “Anyone can as received by the police commissioner ing resistance by the Hindu mob. The say anything, that doesn’t make it true.” and lieutenant general on 15 March. six confessed that they climbed to the Mohan Singh Bisht responded, “Peo- The police did not register an FIR terrace after overhearing someone’s ple can take anyone’s name. I had no against it. suggestion to do so. The disclosure involvement.” The Delhi Police’s effort to sidestep statements indicate that each of them Nand Kishore Gujjar replied that any investigation of the role of Mohan realised at some point that one among he had been in Lucknow during the Nursing Home is already stark in light them had been shot, after which they violence, and had no relation to it. He of these and other grievous complaints. fled the building. added that in his constituency, Loni, The case of the murder of Shahid Alvi, a The police cited three eyewitness tes- “nobody threw even a stone” at that 25-year-old auto driver, casts it in an timonies in the chargesheets, from la- time. even more glaring light. bourers who resided on the second floor When we called Satya Pal Singh, his At around 3.30 pm on 24 February, of the Saptarishi building. None of the personal assistant, Vineet Chaudhary, Shahid was shot in the abdomen on three witnessed Shahid’s killing either,

SEPTEMBER 2020 37 crime and prejudice · reportage and their statements only addressed “Everyone had sticks, bottles, bags full at the time Shahid was shot, and the the clash between the protesters and of stones and guns.” show included footage of this. the Hindu mob. The statements simply It is unclear how the police conclud- With respect to the footage of Mohan say that they saw a group of Muslim ed on this basis that Shahid was shot by Nursing Home, the chargesheet stated, protesters go up to the terrace carrying a Muslim. stones and guns. The witnesses later The chargesheet noted that on 5 In the NDTV footage some rioters told the news website Newslaundry that March, NDTV ran footage showing are seen hurling stones/bottles and their statements produced in the Shahid being brought down a ladder firing from gun who are at the top chargesheet were fabricated. from the roof of the Saptarishi build- of Mohan Nursing Home building The police claimed that one of the ing by unidentified men after he was opposite to Saptarishi Ispat and labourers, 20-year-old Mukesh, iden- shot. The footage was broadcast on the Alloy Private Limited building. The tified one of the men who entered the NDTV show Prime Time, hosted by the distance between both the buildings building, whom the police named in journalist Ravish Kumar. The police was measured and it was found that the chargesheet as Raees Khan. But relied on this footage to establish that the buildings are 78 mertes apart. Mukesh told Newslaundry that he did Shahid was present at the scene of the There are three copper fragments of not know anyone by that name and had crime “on the date and time of incident bullet obtained from the body of the not recognised anyone who entered and he was apparently injured which deceasd; FSL [forensic science labo- the building. Mukesh and a second finally resulted into his death.” The ratory] result is pending qua the bore labourer, Narayan, said they did not see show that day, however, was focussed of the bullet and make of the gun/ any individual carrying any weapon, on how mobs accessed weapons. Kumar pistol through which it was fired. As though both their statements in the reported that an armed mob was firing of now, it seems that the fragments chargesheet quoted them as stating, from the roof of Mohan Nursing Home obtained are of small arm and hence

38 THE CARAVAN crime and prejudice · reportage

opposite page: The Chand Bagh protest site was destroyed completely in the violence. Multiple complainants described the role of nearby Mohan Nursing Home in the assault on the site on 24 February.

left: Akram Khan wrote in his police complaint that he was injured by an explosive dropped from the roof of Mohan Nursing Home. The Delhi Police claimed he was injured in a traffic accident. shaheen ahmed for the caravan

it is highly unlikely that it could have been fired volver, which are generally used in close-range fire from Mohan Nursing Home. However to estab- as these have small muzzles,” he said. “Generally, lish this fact FSL result is needed which is still guns having long muzzles are used by the police awaited. officials, which again proved the mala fide inten- tions of IO, as copper-jacket bullets are also used The police’s preliminary conclusion, without a in long-range weapons having long muzzles, like forensic report, that the bullet could not have been guns which are used by police officials.” He added fired from Mohan Nursing Home, appears tenous. that the calibre cannot be assessed until and In late August, the investigating officer in the case unless a complete bullet is found, “so how could he told us that the FSL report was still pending. suggest about close range small weapon.” We shared the chargesheet with Kranti Shar- We spoke to three eyewitnesses who were on ma, an expert in forensic and ballistic science the roof of the Saptarishi building with Shahid at who consults with the Punjab Police and other the time he was killed. All three were covering the security agencies. Sharma pointed out that Sha- violence as independent photojournalists, and it hid’s post-mortem recorded that there was “no is their footage that ran on NDTV. None of them blackening, singeing or tattooing seen around the was contacted by the Delhi Police ahead of the wound.” He explained that this shows “it was not chargesheet. a close-distance shot” that killed him. He add- One of them, Mohammad Meherban, told us ed that “the fragments as mentioned here can’t that at around 1 pm on 24 February, before he remain inside the body in case the fire is shot from went to the Saptarishi building, he had entered a close distance.” Mohan Nursing Home. He saw “many injured Sharma said the distance between the buildings cops on the second floor,” and also spotted “three as recorded in the chargesheet supported the pos- Muslim women in burqa on the first floor, with sibility that Shahid was shot from Mohan Nursing concerned staff members hiding them in an Home. By including the distance in the charge- intensive-care-unit kind of room—and yes, the sheet, he added, “the IO here is intentionally sug- men concerned about the women’s safety were gestive, self-contradicting.” Sharma dismissed the all Hindus.” Around two hours after he entered conclusion that the bullet was fired from a small the hospital, Meherban continued, the Hindu

ishan tankha weapon. “Now small firearms are like pistol or re- mob barged inside. Some staff members tried to

SEPTEMBER 2020 39 crime and prejudice · reportage this spread: prevent the mob from entering, but “the back door station. The Muslims on the terrace “told us to The Delhi Police was finally opened for the mob to climb up the remain behind them, assuring our safety, and has not opened terrace.” wanted us to continue capturing the scene of fir- an investigation Around this time, the police saw Meherban ing from the Mohan Nursing Home side.” into the role of recording a video on the second floor, and began All three photojournalists said that none of the Mohan Nursing Home, in Yamuna attacking him. When he said he was from the Muslims on top of the Saptarishi building had any Vihar. Numerous media, he recalled, they shouted back, “So what, guns. “The firing was then occurring only from complainants have we told you once already not to take photos.” Me- Mohan Nursing Home, and nowhere else, we are described how herban said it was a good thing that “nobody asked the witnesses to that,” Meherban said. “The Mus- Hindu mobs fired my identity,” as he was “inside that nursing home, lims on this side had stones to stop the Hindu mob guns and threw as a Muslim, occupied by the Hindu mob.” from entering Chand Bagh.” explosives from the roof of the building. Meanwhile, the two other photojournalists were The trio stayed on the Saptarishi building for on the roof of the Saptarishi building, “standing nearly two hours. All three of them said the Hindu behind the Muslim boys,” he continued. Meherban mob atop Mohan Nursing home fired several shots left the hospital and joined his colleagues. at Muslim protesters below. At one point, the first The two other photojournalists, both Hindus, of Meherban’s colleagues said, “They suddenly requested not to be identified. One of them said, pointed at us and I could see them firing in our “I could see the Hindu mobs posing attack from direction as well.” Shaken, the photojournalists three sides”—Mohan Nursing Home, a footbridge warned the others to leave the terrace. “They to the left of the building and a nearby petrol didn’t listen, and we started climbing down that

40 THE CARAVAN crime and prejudice · reportage wooden staircase,” Meherban’s col- Irfan’s statement simply says that dropped Shahid’s body off outside league said. It was around 5.45 pm. strangers dropped a wounded Shahid his family’s house to be taken to GTB “We ran downstairs for our lives off outside his family’s house, and that Hospital, Irfan said he had been in- because the men atop Mohan Nursing he was rushed to GTB Hospital only to formed over the phone that his brother Home had noticed our presence by now be pronounced dead before his body had been shot, and taken to Madina and they were taking aim with their was brought back home. Hospital. rifle,” Meherban said. Irfan’s account of his interaction The chargesheet reveals that al- Meherban’s second colleague also with the police told a different sto- though the police knew about Shahid’s recalled seeing a rifle pointed at the ry. “I had told them in my statement death on the night of 24 February itself, terrace and warning the others to go that my brother was shot dead and the they did not register the FIR in the case down. As the three photojournalists shots were fired from Mohan Nursing until 1 March. It also shows that the were on the stairs heading down, the Home,” Irfan told us, “but I do not police did not ask the FSL team to visit second colleague said, “I heard another know what exactly the policemen have the Saptarishi building until 7 March, shot and the screams of those who written in their report.” When he had twelve days after Shahid was shot. followed me. They were bringing down insisted that this was how Shahid died, Instead of pursuing leads concerning the almost-dead Shahid.” he said, the police slapped him twice. those on top of Mohan Nursing Home, The chargesheet included a state- They also “snatched my cell phone to the Delhi Police arrested six Muslims ment from Shahid’s brother, Irfan. look for any picture or a video” related on tenuous evidence. Mohammed Strangely, it provides no comment to the violence. While the chargesheet Firoz, one of the accused, told us he had on how he believed his brother died. claimed that unknown persons had been falsely implicated. “I have been

SEPTEMBER 2020 41 crime and prejudice · reportage targeted for being a Muslim,” Firoz, a several Muslims injured by the use of hicle, Singh said, “crushing his hands, taxi driver, said. He was picked up by explosives in the area that day. Khan and he was taken to GTB Hospital from officials from the Delhi Police’s crime was returning home from prayers, he there and admitted there. His hand branch on 11 March, while waiting for wrote, when a mob approached him. As was amputated during the treatment, passengers on Wazirabad Road. Firoz he fled, Khan fell to the ground. “The and then an FIR was registered for said he had his son’s name written on owner and staff of Mohan Nursing an accident. Parvesh Kumar is the the rear window of his taxi, and that Home were throwing stones and bombs investigating officer, at the Shastri Park the police targeted him because this from the top of the building,” he wrote. police station, and it is FIR Number 60 had identified him as a Muslim. “That’s when I saw that a bomb had of 2020.” Singh did not ask Khan about On 12 April, Firoz was released on been thrown but I could not get up in any of this while recording his state- bail for 45 days, in compliance with the time. It landed near my hand and my ment. Supreme Court’s directive to decongest hands got caught in the explosion.” According to Singh, Khan changed prisons amid the COVID-19 pandem- Fellow Muslims from the area managed his story after Arvind Kejriwal, the ic. In his bail order, annexed to the to save him by taking him to nearby chief minister of Delhi, announced chargesheet, he is not accused of mur- Meher Nursing Home, he added, and he compensation for those injured during der. The offences listed refer to rioting was later admitted to GTB Hospital. the February violence. He said, “Yeh and creating communal disharmony. On 28 June, The Caravan emailed the sab drama kar rahe ki humaare saath Firoz said he was summoned to the Delhi Police to ask what action had been yeh ho gaya”—He is just being dra- office of the crime branch in Darya- taken regarding Khan’s complaint. The matic, claiming all that happened to ganj, in Old Delhi, on 1 May, and asked next day, when we went to meet Khan him. “Baat hi khatam ho gayi iski com- to sign three blank papers. Two days at his brother’s tailoring workshop for plaint ki”—There is no question left later, he was visited by an official from an interview, we found he had already about his complaint. the Dayalpur police station. “The cops had a surprise visitor—Mahipal Singh, The FIR Singh referred to provided didn’t tell me any details and said they an assistant sub-inspector with the no details of the vehicle involved, the in- were at my house only to inform me Dayalpur police station, had come in dividual accused, the circumstances of that I am an accused in the murder civilian clothes to record Khan’s state- the accident or even how Khan was sup- case,” he said. ment as a follow-up to the complaint. posedly taken to hospital. It noted that a medico-legal case had been registered, “When my son read out the FIR to me, I was but Khan said he was never provided a copy of the MLC report. When Khan shocked,” Ilyas wrote in the complaint filed. “It asked about it while giving his state- did not name any accused person.” ment, Singh told him to go to the Shastri Park police station to get a copy. We asked the investigating officer, Firoz only came to know much later As Khan narrated his experience, he Parvesh Kumar, for details about the that he had been implicated in Shahid’s said there had been firing from atop accident. “Nothing could be traced murder. He said he had never been to Mohan Nursing Home. Singh did not out, so I will report it as ‘untraced,’” the building where Shahid was shot. write down this detail. When Khan Kumar said. “Nothing was found in the “I was at my home on 24 February,” repeated it for emphasis, Singh replied, CCTV footage at the Shastri Park red he told us. Reflecting on the case “Bhajanpura side se likh diya, ek hi baat light.” Like Singh, Kumar dismissed against him, Firoz mused, “These riots hai”—I have written that it came from the allegations in Khan’s complaint took place between the Muslims and the Bhajanpura side, it’s one and the by claiming he had changed his story Muslims, or between the Muslims and same. because of Kejriwal’s announcement of Hindus?” “When I fell down, a bomb came compensation. He is now back in jail. down from Mohan Nursing Home,” A glaring contradiction to the police’s Khan continued. Once again, Singh version of how Khan was injured is while reporting, we witnessed first- interjected: “Yeh sab investigation mein his presence on 24 February at Meher hand how the police have tried to sup- aa jayega”—All of this will be covered Nursing Home, in New Mustafabad, press any reason to investigate Mohan in the investigation. He refused to note where he was administered first aid Nursing Home. down these details. before being taken to GTB Hospital. In a complaint dated 15 March— When asked about his omissions, and This fact is confirmed by a photo of a stamped as received by the Dayalpur about the details recorded in Khan’s bloodied Khan lying in the hospital, as station and recorded as Entry Number complaint, Singh said, “Listen, listen, well as interviews with Khan’s friend 55 in the station’s daily diary—Akram that complaint is fabricated.” By Singh’s who shot the image and a health work- Khan, a 22-year-old resident of Old account, there was an accident near the er who attended to him when he was Mustafabad, described how he lost police station at Shastri Park, at least brought in. his hand during the violence at Chand five kilometres from Chand Bagh, on 24 “Yes, I bandaged his hands,” the Bagh on 24 February. He was one of February. Khan had been hit by a ve- health worker said when shown Khan’s

42 THE CARAVAN crime and prejudice · reportage photo. He requested anonymity, fearing reprisal The media coverage of the use of explosives below: Ilyas, from the Delhi Police. “I recognise this boy by in the violence focussed predominantly on the a resident of face.” The health worker recalled that Khan was discovery of explosives on the terrace of the house Mustafabad, filed in severe condition and had to be sent to GTB of Tahir Hussain, an Aam Aadmi Party councillor a police complaint stating that he Hospital. accused of killing an Intelligence Bureau staff- witnessed a mob If Khan was injured at Shastri Park, as the po- er, Ankit Sharma. Yet numerous complainants destroy his shop lice claimed, it would defy logic that he was taken described mobs using explosives openly and with- with explosives. to both Meher Nursing Home and GTB Hospital, out fear to destroy life and property, with such He identified the both located over six kilometres away and in dif- accounts coming frequently from the Mustafabad, perpetrators by ferent directions from the scene. The police have Chand Bagh and Karawal Nagar areas. name. The police not provided any explanation for this. “At around 11 pm on 25 February, my son received did not register these details in When we contacted Sunil Kumar, one of the a call on his number from within the neighborhood the FIR registered owners and directors of Mohan Nursing Home, he that my shop was under attack and being looted,” Il- on the basis of his refused to comment on the role of the hospital in yas, a resident of Mustafabad, wrote in his complaint, complaint. shaheen ahmed for the caravan the violence. Kumar said he and his staff had given filed at the police help desk at the relief camp on 19 statements to the crime branch, but he cut the call March. Ilyas stated that he ran to his shop to find a before we could ask why they had been contacted group of people, of whom he named at least seven, by the crime branch. He did not answer subse- removing goods from his shop and putting them quent calls, or respond to text messages. inside a tempo. The group was carrying weapons. “Then Anil sweet-seller came to the scene and the handling of Khan’s complaint also points to asked everyone to move back,” Ilyas wrote. “First, the police’s failure to investigate another aspect of he shouted slogans of ‘Jagdish Pradhan zindabad,’ the attacks—the widespread and devastating use ‘Nand Kishore Gujjar zindabad,’ ‘Satyapal sansad of explosives by Hindu mobs. zindabad.’”

SEPTEMBER 2020 43 crime and prejudice · reportage below: On the Ilyas described how Anil “then threw a bomb whereas I had very clearly told the police officer day of Kapil into my shop, which exploded with a loud bang. that Anil sweet-wala took out a bomb from a bag, Mishra’s speech The roof of my shop blew up in a way that could threw it at my house and destroyed the property.” threatening to clear be seen around the area and my ears went numb.” Ilyas took the issue up with Ashish Garg, the out protesters, Ilyas ran home out of fear. investigating officer in the case. The complaint hundreds of women in Jaffrabad Ilyas noted that he had first registered a com- continued, “After this, I requested Ashish Garg- continued their plaint at the Gokulpuri police station in the imme- ji many times that this is not the FIR I had told demonstration diate aftermath of the attack, and it had led to an you, but he responded, ‘Shut up and sit down or against the FIR. He explained why he filed a fresh complaint I will implicate you in a Section 302 court case.’” Citizenship at the help desk despite this. (Section 302 of the Indian Penal Code relates to (Amendment) Act The FIR registered by the Gokulpuri station murder.) and the proposed National Register of indicates that Ilyas had complained of his shop The Delhi Police has not registered an FIR Citizens. being looted and set on fire by rioters. It added based on the second complaint. When contacted that he had lost goods worth approximately eight in July, Garg said he was on medical leave and or nine lakh rupees. It did not, however, name the refused to respond to queries. Pramod Joshi, the individuals Ilyas named in his second complaint, Gokulpuri SHO, said Ilyas had not been cooper- or mention that he witnessed someone he recog- ating with the police investigation, and that he nised destroy the shop with an explosive. had falsely accused people in his complaint. “The “When my son read out the FIR to me, I was complainant himself did not know who set his shocked,” Ilyas wrote in the complaint filed at the shop on fire,” Joshi said. When asked about the help desk. “It did not name any accused per- description of the use of explosives, the SHO dis- son, and the height of it was that it simply said, missed it. “How will a bomb be used over here?” ‘A two-storeyed property has been destroyed,’ he asked.

44 THE CARAVAN crime and prejudice · reportage

{FOUR} rioting and unlawful assembly. The sain on 8 January at the protest site in most chargesheets arising out of the special cell added other offences under Delhi’s Shaheen Bagh. There, the police violence begin with a detailed “chro- the IPC, including murder, attempt to claimed, “it was decided to have a big nology of events” that the police ap- murder and the promotion of religious blast so that the Central Govt. could parently deem relevant to the carnage enmity, as well as offences under the be shaken on the issue of CAA/NRC and each crime committed as part of Prevention of Damage to Public Proper- and so as to defame the country in the it, with little evidence to support such ty Act and the Arms Act. It also added international arena.” connection. According to the Delhi offences under the draconian Unlawful The chargesheet stated that the trio Police, the violence was the culmina- Activities (Prevention) Act, to do with planned to orchestrate riots prior to tion of a conspiracy by Muslim and unlawful activity, terrorist funding, and or during Trump’s visit to Delhi on his other activists opposed to the CAA and planning and committing terror acts. official trip. As multiple news outlets the NRC, and an effort to embarrass The FIR provided very few details subsequently pointed out, there was India on the international stage during about the conspiracy, and shows no no public information about Trump’s a state visit on 24 and 25 February by allegations that suggest any terrorist India visit until 13 January, when The the US president Donald Trump. The activity. It relied on a complaint by Hindu reported that the US president chronology includes the police crack- Arvind Kumar, a sub-inspector at the was “likely to visit at the end of Febru- down against students at Jamia Millia crime branch, who stated that he had ary.” The police have not explained this Islamia in December, the anti-CAA learnt through his sources that the glaring flaw in their claims, but have protests beginning that same month February violence was a “preplanned either omitted or altered this part of the and scattered incidents of violence at conspiracy.” conspiracy theory in later chargesheets. protest sites. The police have implicat- “The conspiracy to spread the riots The Delhi Police have also claimed ed numerous prominent opponents of was hatched by the JNU student Umar in chargesheets that they intervened the CAA, and also dissidents critical of Khalid and his associates who are at the Jamia campus in December “to the Modi government, in the investiga- tion of the alleged conspiracy. “These riots took place between the Muslims and In the case of the murder of Ratan Lal, a police head constable killed on 24 Muslims, or between the Muslims and Hindus?” February, the chargesheet included a Firoz mused, reflecting on the allegation that he chart to explain the alleged conspiracy. Filed in early June, it shows three levels had shot Shahid Alvi. of actors—the conspirators at the top, and under them local instigators and linked to a number of organisations,” contain the violence and prevent any local rioters. the FIR stated. It claimed that Khalid, aggression in the situation.” Numerous Among others, the alleged conspira- expelled from Jawaharlal Nehru Uni- videos and witness accounts have made tors include members of Pinjra Tod, an versity for criticising the government, clear that, in fact, the police brutally at- autonomous women’s collective; United delivered speeches together with his tacked peaceful student protesters, and Against Hate, which works to stem the associates to instigate the masses dur- even students who were doing nothing rising incidence of lynchings across the ing Trump’s visit, and stationed women more than studying in the library. country; and the Jamia Coordination and children across the national capital In the Ratan Lal chargesheet, the Committee, which led the students’ to incite violence. To this end, the FIR police made the bold assertion that it protest against the CAA at Jamia Millia said, “firearms, petrol bombs, acid bot- is “not difficult to understand that the Islamia. All three groups have been tles, stones, sling shots and other dan- present incident was a consequence of critical of the government. Also on gerous items were collected in homes a deep-rooted conspiracy which was the list are members of the All India in Maujpur, Kardampuri, Jaffrabad, hatched under the garb of democrat- Students’ Association—the students’ Chand Bagh, Gokulpuri, and Shiv Vihar ically opposing the Citizenship Act.” wing of the Communist Party of India and nearby areas.” It is difficult to understand how the (Marxist-Leninist) Liberation—and As the Unlawful Activities (Preven- police arrived at this conclusion, since former councillors from the Congress tion) Act grants the police up to 180 the chargesheet does not contain any and the Aam Aadmi Party. days to file a chargesheeet, the special details to support it. In early March, the Delhi Police’s cell is yet to file one in the case of FIR As of 25 August, the special cell had crime branch registered FIR Number 59 59. But chargesheets in other cases pro- arrested at least 19 individuals in the of 2020 to specifically investigate this vide insight on the police investigation. conspiracy case. Only one, Safoora alleged conspiracy. The matter has since In the chargesheet for the killing Zargar, had been released on bail, after come to be known as the main conspir- of Ankit Sharma, filed in early June, massive public outcry over her impris- acy case. In April, the FIR was trans- the Delhi Police claimed that Khalid onment while pregnant. ferred to the special cell of the Delhi Saifi, a founder of United Against Hate, The Patiala House district court has Police. The FIR initially listed offences arranged a meeting between Khalid granted the police time until 17 Sep-

sajjad hussain / afp getty images hussain sajjad under the Indian Penal Code to do with and the AAP councillor Tahir Hus- tember to file a chargesheet in the case.

SEPTEMBER 2020 45 crime and prejudice · reportage right: Mohammad the police have continued to make such alle- persons—18 women and 563 men, including 108 Mumtaz, who gations. In July, the Delhi Police submitted an police personnel. On the strength of these statis- watched his affidavit to the Delhi High Court, in response tics, the Delhi Police claimed that it had “acted chicken shop burnt to petitions connected to the investigation of fairly and in accordance with the law while inves- down and his the violence. “The prima facie investigation has tigating the Riot cases.” house assaulted, continues to run revealed that this is not the case of any sporadic The affidavit did not disclose how many com- into the people who or spontaneous violence but appears to be a part plaints the police received disclosing cognisable perpetrated the of a well thought of conspiracy to destabilise the offences, how many of these led to FIRs, or what attacks. “If I step harmony in the society,” the affidavit stated. It discrepancy there was between the two num- out and they come added that “the plan and objective of this larger bers—indicating violations of the legal procedures across me,” he said, conspiracy was to give it the legitimacy of civil laid down by the Supreme Court. It also did not “they look at me menacingly and say, disobedience/protest and to maintain the said state how many complaints named BJP leaders ‘We’ve only burnt façade; though the real intention behind this and Delhi Police personnel, or how many BJP your house so far, façade was to perpetrate any kind of violent leaders and police officials had booked, investigat- we will cut you into action, going to any extent, for the purpose of out ed or named in FIRs. pieces now.’” throwing the lawfully constituted government of The police provided the court with a list of the day.” properties damaged in the violence: 13 mosques shaheen ahmed for the caravan shaheen ahmed for the caravan

The police modified the earlier claim that the and six temples; 185 houses—90 owned by Mus- alleged conspirators knew the dates of Trump’s lims, 18 by Hindus and the rest of unspecified visit before they were made public: the affidavit ownership; 468 shops—250 owned by Muslims, claimed that the decision to escalate the protests 66 owned by Hindus and the rest of unspeci- was taken after the visit was announced. fied ownership. The disproportionate damage The affidavit broke the investigation down by to Muslim properties again calls into question numbers: the police had registered 751 FIRs, of the police’s claim of a conspiracy that involved which 59 were being investigated by the crime the Muslim community. So does the tally of the branch, 691 by local police stations and one by people killed: 40 of the official total of 53 people the special cell. The police had filed chargesheets killed were Muslims. in 200 cases, and made 1,430 arrests. Of the 53 The only demonstrable claim in the police people killed, 13 had died from gunshot injuries, narrative appeared to be that anti-CAA demon- 34 due to arson or rioting, and six due to unknown strators had blockaded roads—a widely reported reasons. The affidavit noted that the police had part of their protest strategy. The affidavit stated registered medico-legal certificates for 581 injured that “the motive behind these blockade, during the

46 THE CARAVAN crime and prejudice · reportage time when the US President was visit- has seen enough violence. Let us not Writ Petitions in instigating and/or ing India, was to attract the attention repeat 1984.” participating in the riots.” of international media for propagating During the hearing, Mehta and Delhi a narrative that the government of the Police officials told the court they had {FIVE} day was anti-Muslim and by the use of not seen videos of the speeches in ques- since late february, the Delhi Po- the state machinery/force was execut- tion, though they had been circulating lice has been on an arresting spree in ing a pogrom against the Muslims of widely. “I’m really appalled by the state connection to the violence. While many the country and there was a large scale of affairs of the Delhi Police,” Mural- young Muslims have been picked up persecution of Muslims in India.” The idhar said. The bench had the speeches off the streets, many more have been affidavit did not explain how the al- played in open court. taken from their homes. In many cases, leged conspirators could have predicted Kapil Mishra was shown speaking Muslim men have been accused of that “state machinery/force” would be at Jaffrabad. Parvesh Verma, a mem- burning the properties and even taking used against protesters during Trump’s ber of parliament, had described the the lives of their fellows Muslims, even visit. protesters at Shaheen Bagh as rapists when complainants have identified oth- and murderers in public speeches an in- er perpetrators. To justify arrests, the one of the petitions the affidavit re- terview to the media. Anurag Thakur, a Delhi Police have often used footage or sponded to was filed during the blood- union minister of state for finance, had photographs of men holding sticks or shed to seek FIRs against Kapil Mishra and other BJP leaders for inciting “FIRs will be registered at the appropriate time,” violence with hateful speeches. The matter was originally listed to the solicitor general, Tushar Mehta, told the be heard before the chief justice of court. “What’s the appropriate time, Mr Mehta?” the Delhi High Court, DN Patel, on 26 February. As Patel was on leave that Muralidhar asked. “The city is burning.” day, it was heard instead by a bench of the judges S Muralidhar and Talwant attacked anti-CAA protestors with the crude weapons. Many arrestees, and Singh. slogan “Desh ke gaddaron ko, goli maaro also their families, maintain they were The solicitor general, Tushar Mehta, saalo ko”—Shoot the traitors of this holding weapons to defend themselves appeared in court to argue that there nation. Abhay Verma, a member of the from Hindu mobs, and were not at was no immediate need for an FIR. As Delhi legislative assembly, was shown the sites of the crimes they have been a representative of the union govern- leading a crowd that chanted, “Police ke accused of. ment, which was not a party to the hatyaaron ko, goli maaro saalo ko”— Zamreen Hasan, a tailor in his late case, the solicitor general had not been Shoot those who killed policemen. thirties and a resident of Chand Bagh, expected to appear that day. Mehta ex- The bench directed the police to was resting at his home on 22 June plained that, unusually, the lieutenant “take a conscious decision” on lodging when police barged in and took him governor had asked him to represent FIRs, and to notify the court of its de- away to the Gokulpuri police station. the commissioner of the Delhi Police. cision by the next day. Muralidhar was When we went to his home in mid July, He asked for the matter to be listed for transferred overnight. The case was his wife, Rukhsana, opened the door hearing the next day, and argued that then listed before DN Patel, who made with a look of fear and holding a Quran there was no urgency to act. “FIRs will the union government a party to it and in one hand. The sight of an unidenti- be registered at the appropriate time,” granted four weeks for the government fied man holding a notebook and a pen he said. to file a reply to the petitions. had often provoked reflexive terror “What’s the appropriate time, Mr In early March, the Supreme Court during our reporting—to many, it had Mehta? The city is burning.” Mural- heard a petition seeking the registra- come to represent police officials. She idhar, the head of the bench, respond- tion of FIRs against the same four BJP relaxed when she learnt we were jour- ed. “How many more lives have to be leaders for offences including murder. nalists. lost? How many properties have to be It remitted the case to the Delhi High Zamreen’s brother, Noor, said the destroyed?” Court, to be clubbed together with police told the family they would send “It will be registered when the situ- earlier petitions to do with the violence. Zamreen back after an “inquiry.” Noor ation is conducive,” Mehta replied, and The Delhi Police finally respond- followed the police to the Gokulpuri asked the court not to get “angry.” ed to the petitions with the affidavit station and waited for hours, he said, “This is not anger, this is anguish,” submitted in July. “It is submitted that before he spotted his brother in lock- Muralidhar shot back. He reiterated the during the investigations conducted so up. The police refused to give him any point later in the hearing: “This is the far in all the aforesaid matter related details. “The next day, we were told anguish of a constitutional court. Why to North-East Delhi riots,” the affida- that he was involved in a case for riot- are you not showing alacrity when it vit stated, “no actionable evidence has ing and we should pursue his bail now,” comes to registration of FIRs in these surfaced yet indicating any role being Noor said. “When I asked the police- cases?” Muralidhar added, “This city played by the persons named in the men about the case and the FIR, their

SEPTEMBER 2020 47 crime and prejudice · reportage tone became aggressive.” One police- Force, of aiding Hindu mobs as they said, and shown CCTV footage from a man, he continued, accused Muslims of attacked Muslim neighbourhoods. “We camera installed near their house. Saifi starting the violence. clearly remember how the men in blue accompanied his brother to the station. The family said Zamreen had been threw tear-gas shells from behind the “When I asked them what my brother’s in Delhi’s Mandoli Central Jail since mob to repel our boys,” she said. “But fault was, they threatened me too,” he 22 June. Rukhsana told us she had sent the boys did well and the mob could not added. Meharban was taken into custo- clothes for him with Noor, but the jail enter our lanes.” dy that day. authorities had refused to pass them “We just had stones or lathis to stop “After two days, I was handed the to Zamreen, citing the coronavirus these mobs, who were raising Jai Shri FIR that narrated how a truck had been pandemic. “Ever since his arrest, I have Ram slogans, threw petrol bombs and burnt down on 24 February during received just a single call from him, fired shots, attacking our houses and the riots,” Saifi said. That was when from inside the jail, and he told me that shops,” Shehnaz added. “And yes, all he learnt why his brother had been ar- he has been washing the same clothes in the presence of the police.” She con- rested. The column for the individuals that he wore,” Rukhsana said when demned the police for picking up locals accused in the FIR was left blank. we met. On 1 August, Zamreen was who were “guarding their own Muslim Saifi pointed out that Meharban released on bail. community.” suffered from polio, and could not walk “We were told that he had held a According to Noor, the Delhi Police long distances. “There was no chance stick, and the image of him holding the picked up between two hundred and for us to reach the main Wazirabad stick on our street corner was caught three hundred Muslims from Chand Road where the vehicles were burnt,” on CCTV footage,” Rukhsana said. Bagh alone. “People do not speak be- he said. “Get the call records, or our She recounted the circumstances that cause of the fear,” he said. “We are also phone locations, when all this was hap- led Zamreen to pick the stick up. On scared because there is no rule of law. pening, we stood guarding our lanes, the evening of 24 February, armed My brother is in jail, you are inter- helplessly calling up the police that mobs tried to enter the lanes of Chand viewing us, and we are now scared the never came.” Bagh from Wazirabad Road, and threw police could be vindictive. Anything Saifi added, Roz“ ka kaam hai, ladke petrol bombs into the neighbourhood. can happen to my brother inside the ab bahar nikalne se darte hai”—It’s a “They were on a rampage, setting the prison.” daily affair now, the local boys are shops on fire, I saw a tear-gas shell Less than five hundred metres away scared to move around. dropped nearby,” she recalled. Her hus- from Rukhsana’s house, Imran Saifi sat When we met Meharban’s lawyer, band, who she said is very gentle, “sim- in his hardware shop and recounted a Nasir Ali, he showed us four FIRs ply found a stick to hold as he silently similar ordeal. Saifi said his brother, pointing to a pattern of arbitrary ar- watched what was happening from the Meharban Ali, was picked up by the rests in the Chand Bagh area. He said street corner. That was his only fault.” Delhi Police and accused of burning all those accused in these cases were Rukhsana asked, “Haath mein danda a vehicle on Wazirabad Road. Like in young men whose arrests were formal- lena bhi gunah hai kya?”—Is holding a Zamreen’s case, the police arrested Me- ly recorded after they had been picked stick a crime? harban on the basis of CCTV footage up, and all the arrests were made on the Rukhsana and Zamreen have three that showed him standing with a stick, basis of the same CCTV footage—from children, aged between ten and 15 at the intersection of Wazirabad Road a camera at street number 11 of Chand years. “What could I tell them after the and a lane leading into Chand Bagh. Bagh’s 25-Foot Road market. But “these policemen took their father away in “What is our fault in this?” Sai- are the FIRs pertaining to different in- front of their eyes?” she asked. fi asked. “We can’t even hold lathis cidents of crime on the main Wazirabad Other women from the neighbour- outside our houses to stop the violent Road, 250 metres to 800 meters away hood overheard us and came to join us. mobs?” He also reiterated that the from the cited CCTV-camera location Complaints against the police flowed Muslims of Chand Bagh had made of the accused caught in the footage.” freely. “We placed thousands of calls, “hundreds of calls” to the police in vain In one of the FIRs, one of those but the police never came,” Shehnaz, an on 24 February, but they received no arrested, Habib Ahmed, was accused elderly woman and the most outspoken assistance. of burning the office of one Saleem, on of the group, said. “Yes, we resisted “No shop was touched because we 24 February. Ahmed was arrested on with stones. What else was expected? stood with sticks in hands, not know- 14 June, based on his identification as Had the boys from Mustafabad not ing that these sticks would cost us so a culprit by a constable, and released arrived on time to repel the mob with dearly,” he continued. The shops on on bail on 19 June. In his bail order, the stones, this Chand Bagh would have the 25-Foot Road in Chand Bagh are additional sessions judge Vinod Yadav become another Shiv Vihar.” Shiv Vihar predominantly owned by Muslims, Saifi observed, “A bare perusal of the FIR in was among the worst-affected areas said, and there are not more than six this matter and the place where the ap- during the violence. Hindu shops on the steer, but Muslim plicant is stated to be seen rioting is al- Afsana, another elderly woman, ac- locals had guarded them too. together different. … there is hardly any cused the Rapid Action Force, a special- Meharban was summoned to the connection between the CCTV footage ised wing of the Central Reserve Police Dayalpur police station on 9 June, Saifi and the incident in this case. As regards

48 THE CARAVAN crime and prejudice · reportage identification by constable Sunil of the applicant is mobs. In June, already struggling in the wake of concerned, even same has no meaning as why he the attacks, he was admitted to hospital for a sur- kept waiting from 24.02.2020 till 14.06.2020 and gical procedure. It was around this time that his not reported the matter to the police.” son persuaded him to drop the case. “My son has “There are several cases in which the Muslim written to the police that we want to withdraw men are arrested on the charges of burning the our complaint,” Ali said. properties of Muslims only,” Nasir said, “with Imrana Parveen, who also complained about many of them not even visible in any CCTV foot- police brutality at Chand Bagh, had told The age or video at the spot of the crime, and the police Caravan in June that she was still traumatised by show the footages of other locations to implicate the violence. “If I remember the scene, I cannot them.” stop crying,” she said. “Because I saw it all with As of 25 August, Nasir said, he had been able my own eyes, the people who got hit by the bullets, to facilitate bail for around seventy men in such who got wounded in their heads, the women who cases. were beaten.” She could not sleep at night for two In Khajuri Khas and Mustafabad too, the police months, Parveen added, and was still living in appeared to have picked up young Muslims based fear. on little more than CCTV footage of them holding Parveen said police from the Dayalpur station sticks, and later informed them and their families had come to her house numerous times during the that the individuals had been arrested as perpe- lockdown, and threatened to implicate her in a trators of the violence. murder case unless she withdrew her complaint. Mohammed Suleman was arrested from Khajuri But she had held firm at the time, and continued Khas on the basis of such CCTV footage, and to insist on an FIR. “I told them I will not take accused of burning down Sanjar Chicken Corner. my complaint back,” she said. “No matter what Mumtaz, the shop’s owner and an old friend of happens with me, I will continue seeking justice.” Suleman’s, was with Suleman when we spoke to him. “We just had stones or lathis to stop these “We were holding sticks to guard our street against the mob attack, and I was picked up by mobs, who were raising Jai Shri Ram the police on the basis of this video only,” Sule- slogans, threw petrol bombs and fired man told us. Mumtaz also emphasised his friend’s innocence. “This is false,” he said of the allega- shots, attacking our houses and shops,” tions against Suleman. He insisted the people who Shehnaz, a resident of Chand Bagh, said. burnt his shop were not Muslims, but Gujjars from Sherpur village, an adjoining area. In July, Praveer Ranjan, the Delhi Police’s But by mid August, her resolve had failed. Rubina special commissioner for intelligence, wrote to of- Bano, Parveen’s friend and neighbour, told us ficers investigating the violence about a “degree of Parveen had decided against pursuing the com- resentment among the Hindu community” follow- plaint, and had left the neighbourhood to go back ing the arrests of Hindu youths. Ranjan directed to her village in Uttar Pradesh. When we tried them to “exercise due care and precaution,” and to calling her, Parveen did not answer the phone. guide their subordinates “suitably.” This message Bano, on the other hand, was still determined to was challenged in the Delhi High Court, which pursue her complaint on the Chand Bagh vio- ordered the police to ignore it but ruled that it had lence—despite also facing intimidation, and while not prejudiced any investigations. Phone calls and nine months pregnant. On 22 August, a neighbour an email to Ranjan’s office went unanswered. called Bano to say the police were at her house, asking for her 14-year-old son. She rushed home to add to muslims’ feeling of persecution, the with her sister. “I confronted the policemen, one seemingly indiscriminate arrests have been ac- in uniform and two in civilian clothes, seeking companied by police pressure on many Muslims to any document at hand to take away my nephew,” withdraw their complaints. Bano’s sister said. Bano said the police showed Sabir Ali, whose complaint described the role of them an image of her son and his cousin holding the police and Mohan Nursing Home in the attack a cricket bat and a wicket, captured by a CCTV on protesters in Chand Bagh, tried repeatedly camera outside their house. after the violence to have an FIR registered based “The cops threatened to arrest me, even saying on his testimony—but to no avail. During this they would not care about my pregnancy, if I did time, he said, the police picked up his son and held not hand my son over to them,” Bano said. “I need him overnight, and confiscated his phone, which security, and the support of the media and my held videos of the violence perpetrated by Hindu lawyers, who should be accessible to me whenever

SEPTEMBER 2020 49 crime and prejudice · reportage opposite page: I need them in case of any emergent situation.” Sameena said the police had approached her A street in Khajuri Though she sounded low, Bano added: “I will husband on 1 August, the day of Eid, and told him, Khas on 28 February. not back down, and I will continue to fight not “You can celebrate Eid today, but we will pick you Many residents of only for my children but for the safety of all the and your wife up tomorrow, so tell her to with- northeast Delhi children in our locality, and all the women are draw her complaint.” left their homes and abandoned the with me.” When we last spoke, on 22 August, Sameena city following the Mohammed Ilyas—whose complaint described said police officials had visited her again just four violence. violence by Kapil Mishra, threats of violence days ago to ask her to withdraw her complaint. from the police, and Tarkeshwar Singh receiving “It is their job to intimidate and threaten us,” she instructions to take looted money to the house of told us. “I am not scared of them. I walk up to Satya Pal Singh—had also endured consequences them when I speak to them.” But she could not for himself and his family. On 12 August, he said, entirely hide her fear. “I’m scared they will pick police visited his father’s house to try and serve up my husband behind my back,” she said. “I don’t summons to his brothers, Mohammed Khalid and let him out of my sight because of this. I don’t Mohammed Aijaz. The notices to them were filed leave him, fearing that they might pick him up or under FIR 59—the main conspiracy case—using pick my 17-year-old son up or pick my two young Section 43F of the Unlawful Activities (Preven- children up.” tion) Act, which empowers police to call upon individuals to furnish information necessary for some complainants have also faced continuing an investigation. intimidation from other residents. Mohammad According to Ilyas, both his brothers were in Mumtaz, who watched his chicken shop burnt Dehradun at the time, and his father refused to down and his house attacked in the violence, said accept the notices on his sons’ behalf. The police he continued to run into the people who perpe- stuck the two notices on the door, addressed to trated the attacks, whom he identified as associ- each brother individually, telling them to visit the ates of the BJP legislator Mohan Singh Bisht. “If I special cell on 14 August. Ilyas said his brothers step out and they come across me, they look at me responded through a lawyer to express their ina- menacingly and say, ‘We’ve only burnt your house bility to come. so far, we will cut you into pieces now,’” Mumtaz “The police want me to withdraw my com- said. plaint,” Ilyas told us. “I have also been getting “I knew all of them, because during election messages from the police station for a long time, time the legislator would himself come to us and asking me to ‘get the matter resolved through ask for votes,” he explained. “All of them know negotiations.’” The day before the police posted me, the legislator knows me, and all of them who the notices outside his father’s house, Ilyas said, committed the attack know me.” he had been summoned to the crime branch. He Just weeks before the violence, while cam- did not go, Ilyas said, and conveyed through his paigning for the Delhi assembly election, Bisht’s lawyer that, in light of the coronavirus pandem- associates “had come to me and said that we have ic, a personal appearance would only be possible to make the legislator win this time,” Mumtaz “if the staff who needed me were identified and recalled. “I had assured them that our community underwent a COVID test.” will vote for him.” He added that he even let Bisht Sameena, too, said she had faced police pressure and his associates use a room in his house for their to withdraw her complaint, which described the campaign work. police threatening protestors at Chand Bagh and “The legislator knows that not one vote from named the BJP leader Jagdish Pradhan. “After I these lanes went to anyone else, all of them went filed the complaint, they kept coming to my house to him,” Mumtaz continued. “Despite this, he did and intimidating me,” she said, speaking of the not come here even once to see what had hap- police. “They keep coming every second or third pened to us after the violence.” day.” We asked whether Mumtaz had gone to Bisht In late June, Sameena moved the Karkardooma since the attacks. “What could I have said after district court seeking police protection. She said such a traumatic event?” he replied. “And I saw the court had ordered that a woman officer visit him with my own eyes, throwing a bomb at us. her regularly at her house to make sure she was With what face could I have gone to him and how not being harassed by anyone. “But nothing has could I have asked him for help?” happened since,” Sameena said. “I have neither Mumtaz’s mother died in mid August. She was received any call, nor has any police lady come to in her fifties. “Our mother’s health used to be me.” She added that, since filing her complaint in fine,” Mumtaz’s brother said. “After the riots hap- March, she has also not had any word from the pened, she saw that everything she had worked

police about registering an FIR. for and saved for her children, all of it had been ishan tankha

50 THE CARAVAN crime and prejudice · reportage destroyed. In that tension, my mother by one. You can rebuild and beautify we worked for our whole lives was fell sick. She was unable to bear that your house all you want, but we will cut destroyed.” shock, and she gradually grew more you down.’” On 25 February, Zaheer said, after unwell until she died.” Zaheer told us he had been living in Bisht had thrown a bomb at the family’s Mumtaz’s household appeared to be the area for almost fifty years, and had house and left, and while the Hindu mob struggling to survive. “We are unable never seen his neighbours act the way was on a rampage, the police belatedly to live here,” his brother said. “There they did in February. “Everyone here arrived to take residents away for their is no means left to survive. If we step knows us, all of them know our family,” safety. “After everyone left, the house out, all we get to hear from people is, he said. “People used to come to our was empty,” Zaheer remembered. “We ‘Now you wait, we’ve only burnt your house and we used to go to theirs, and it had a dog named Bunty. For half an hour, house down, we will cut all of you.’ all used to seem like one family. I don’t he did not let anyone enter our house. So Who will want to live in this sort of know how so much hatred got into they shot him twice. What did he do? He atmosphere?” their hearts, and when they began to ran from there to the second floor, where Mohammed Zaheer, Mumtaz’s octo- hate us so much.” we stayed, and he died there.” genarian father, voiced similar despair. Everything he earned for over four Mumtaz, who had been listening “It is difficult to survive now,” he said. decades had gone into the family’s quietly while his father spoke, broke “We are living in such fear that it is house, Zaheer said. Then he remem- his silence. “Mai toh bas yeh kahunga, jo difficult to sleep at night. If we step out bered his wife: “After the house was jaanwar tha, ussne wafadari kari, aur jo onto the road, we hear someone saying, set on fire, everything of hers burnt insaan the, unhone gaddari kari”—All I ‘Fucker, we’ve only burnt your house down. Struggling with the trauma over will say is this: the animal showed loy- now, we’re going to cut you down one the house, she died as well. Everything alty, the humans were treacherous. s

SEPTEMBER 2020 51