On the night of 2 September, a mob attacked 50-year-old Dawood Ali Tyagi, a farmer, as he sat outside his house in Vinaypur village, in Uttar Pradesh’s Baghpat district. Dawood’s brother had died of an illness a month earlier, and there were people visiting the family. Dawood’s nephews, Naeem and Amjad, and his neighbour Akram were also sitting with him. Suddenly, at around 10 pm, around eighteen armed youths, on seven to eight motorcycles, rode in and attacked the group with sharp weapons. They held country-made pistols and later shouted slogans of “Jai Shri Ram.” While the others managed to escape, Dawood was seriously injured. He was immediately taken to a hospital in Meerut but succumbed to his injuries.
Naeem reported the incident to the police. On 3 September, the police registered a first information report at the Khekra police station, under sections 147, 148, 149 and 302 of the Indian Penal Code. They pertain to punishment for rioting, carrying a deadly weapon, unlawful assembly and murder. In an official statement, the police said they had arrested four accused, who came from the nearby Bhagot village, while 13 others were absconding. Police also said they recovered four sticks and two motorcycles used in the murder.
The four arrested are Nikki alias Vikki, Harish, Mohit and Dilip. A fifth person, Upendra, later surrendered to the police.. Vijay Kumar Chaudhary, the Khekra circle officer, told us that if the remaining accused are not caught within a month, a contempt of court case will be filed against them, and their properties attached.
However, the police appeared to downplay the possible communal aspect of the murder and framed it as a personal dispute. According to the police statement, the accused said that there was tension between the youth of Vinaypur and Bhagot, and they wanted to teach their counterparts in Vinaypur a lesson. The accused said they had gathered in Bhagot and decided to beat whoever they found in Vinaypur. The men accepted that they went to Vinaypur at 10 pm with sticks and pistols and attacked people. But Chaudhary denied that the murder had a communal angle. “This was not a communal incident,” he told us. “These people have an old land dispute. They all have their fields together.”
I spoke to ShahRukh Ali, Dawood’s son, a student of Delhi’s Jamia Millia Islamia University, who hopes to work in civil services. Though the accused claimed that they had arrived in Vinaypur with the intention of “beating whoever they find,” ShahRukh pointed out that his house was deep inside the village and that the attackers had to pass through about fifty Hindu houses before reaching there. He suggested that the attack was well planned.
Naeem, the nephew, recalled what happened. “We were sitting outside our house when suddenly people came from the east side of the village,” he said. “They didn’t say anything and attacked us.” He said they fired pistols and were carrying sticks, rods and axes. Naeem said that the attackers did not talk to them, and beat them as soon as they arrived. “As soon as the beating started, we ran away. I ran towards the village. In the end, only my uncle remained there,” Naeem said. “He was hit with an axe. They were also raising slogans. At that time there was so much panic inside me, I was running to save my life. At one point, I felt my life will not be saved.”
Ishtiaq, a 62-year-old resident of Vinaypur and Dawood’s neighbour, who lives a little further ahead, also described what he witnessed. “We were all preparing to sleep after having dinner when suddenly loud noises started coming,” Ishtiaq said. “People were shouting loudly. They shouted, ‘They killed him, killed him.’ When these voices started coming, my daughter said that something has happened outside. I called my son that miscreants have come outside and it seems that they have killed a child.” Ishtiaq continued, “When my son ran out of the house, they opened fire. My boy sat down as soon as the firing happened. It seemed there were more than ten motorcycles. When they came close to my house, they raised slogans of ‘Jai Shri Ram’ and went on shouting loudly.”
After the group of attackers had passed, Ishtiaq said he could hear loud shouts and “the sound of many people crying.” He headed to Dawood’s house and saw he had been attacked. Ishtiaq said Dawood’s head had been spilt and he was bleeding profusely.
This incident has shaken Dawood’s family. A month before Dawood’s death, his elder brother died of a heart attack. After his murder, Dawood’s younger brother also suffered a heart attack and died. When I visited their house in Vinaypur, the family seemed imprisoned in an infinite loop of shock, trying to making sense of recent events.
Dawood has three sons and a daughter. He was the sole breadwinner of his family and wanted his son to become an administrative services officer. Shahrukh said that the family had no enmity with anyone. “What can be worse than this, when someone comes home and kills a man unnecessarily, a man who has nothing to do with anything,” he said. “We were very happy in our family. Everything was going very well. There was no problem of any kind. All the work of my brothers and sisters was being done on time. Our family in the village was a happy one.”
Residents of Vinaypur said that there had always been communal harmony in the village. Shahrukh told us that his father had given land to build a Shiva temple in their village. “This temple is 30 meters away from the mosque and people used to believe that when Hindus and Muslims live in love in our village, then why should temples and mosques stay apart.” Despite his father’s death, Shahrukh called for peace to prevail. “I don't want the atmosphere of the village to be bad and there should not be a riot in the name of my village, which will cause any harm to the society,” he said. “Although my father was innocent, because of this no one else's house should be burnt.”
The district administration asked Dawood’s family not to hold any protest that might disturb peace in the village, a request the family agreed to. The administration assured the family that action would be taken against the accused, the family would be given compensation and aid from the Farmer’s Accident Insurance scheme and the Chief Minister’s Discretionary Fund, and that one member of the family would be provided a government job. But almost three months later, none of the promises have been fulfilled, except for action against four accused. “The farmer’s accident file is moving from here to there, there has been no hearing on the Chief Minister's Discretionary Fund yet,” Shahrukh said.
Vinaypur residents said this was perhaps the first case of communal violence in their village. According to a report in Article 14, some members of the Gujjar community in the area claimed that Muslim men from Vinaypur had harassed Hindu girls. The police denied these claims. Article 14 reported that WhatsApp messages had been circulating asking Hindus to “find justice for the girls who were harassed by Muslims.”
I spoke to Dharam Chand, a 90-year-old village elder and the grandfather of the village pradhan. He said that those who killed Dawood should be severely punished and that the entire village was condemning the incident. “There has always been harmony in our village,” Chand said. “Both Hindus and Muslims are friends of each other. They invite each other to their homes on festivals. They respect each other and live by making a brotherhood.”