Indore Muslim family beaten up for not leaving village, cops allege money dispute

A group of men chanting ‘Jai Shree Ram’ barged into the house of a Muslim family of seven, who are residents of a grampanchayat near Indore in Madhya Pradesh, and allegedly beat them up on Saturday (October 9) for not paying heed to an earlier warning by the same group to vacate their house and leave the village.

A month ago, the group had threatened the Geyasuddin family and asked them to leave the village by Saturday, which they had ostensibly not done, said media reports.

The police however have said that the two groups had a fallout due to a financial transaction and the police have registered complaints from both sides, said an Indian Express report.

The Geyasuddin family, who are blacksmiths by profession making trolleys and other agricultural equipment for a living, have been living in Kampel grampanchayat for the two years ago. They are blacksmiths by profession and made trolleys and other agricultural equipment for a living. The mob had barged into their house and began beating up 46-year old Farukh Geyasuddin and his relative with rods lying nearby.

Also read: Journalist Kappan ‘reports to incite Muslims’: UP’s 5,000-page chargesheet

The group was angry that the family had not vacated the house and kept reminding them that they had warned them about facing the “dire consequences”, said Shahrukh Geyasuddin, the son of Farukh.

Shahrukh’s sister Fauziya too tried to record the incident, which went on for 25 minutes, on a video. But they dragged her out and snatched away her cellphone and broke it into pieces.

After the group had left, the family went to Khudel police station from where they were sent to Indore’s Maharaja Yashwantrao Hospital for a medical test. Subsequently, an FIR was registered based on their complaint, said media reports.

According to Shahrukh, they had already informed the sarpanch about the warning they had received from the group. Further, he told Indian Express the problem was over the men objecting to them purchasing a plot of land near their house. They said that they would get more of their kind to come and ‘settle here’.

But the sarpanch had assured them not to worry about the threats and so they had not vacated the house, explained Shahrukh. The men who had threatened them lived on the outskirts of the village.

Based on the Geyasuddin family’s complaint, Khudel police have registered an FIR against nine people under sections 323 (for voluntarily causing hurt), 506 (criminal intimidation), 294 (Obscene acts and Songs), 427 (Mischief causing damage to the amount of Rs 50), 147 (Punishment for rioting) and 148 (Rioting armed with deadly weapons) of the IPC.

Also Watch: Bengaluru man beaten for giving lift to Muslim female colleague

According to sub-inspector Vishwajeet Tomar the fight had broken out because the Geyasuddin family, who had taken money from the other group to build a trolley had not made one and neither did he return the money, said an Indian Express report. There has been a cross-complaint reportedly registered based on the complaint of Vikas Patel who lives near the village.

Queried on whether the family’s allegation that the men belonged to RSS and had threatened them to leave the village a month back, Tomar denied having received any such information, said media reports. Investigations are since there are cross FIRs from both sides and both parties have sustained injuries.

However, the Muslim family’s lawyer, Ehtesham Hashmi, an advocate practising at the Supreme Court, said that the cross-complaint registered by the police was a complete fraud.