Agitating crowd in Syana on day of violence comprised outsiders, where did carcass come from remains to be revealed

Rahul Satija and Saurabh Sharma

Bulandshahr: While on the surface the violent incident in Syana, Bulandshahr on 3 December seems a straight case of Hindu outfits enraged over cow slaughter that resulted in clashes between police and villagers, reports from the ground suggest several knots in the story that need to be untangled before conclusions are drawn.

The vehement brawl that took place between the police and those protesting the discovery of cow carcass in Chingrawati village led to deaths of a UP police inspector, Subodh Kumar Singh, and a 21-year-old youth from Syana, Sumit. Both of them died of gunshot injuries.   

Syana police have registered two FIRs in the case--- one with regard to cow slaughter, under which seven accused have been named, and another regarding the mob violence, which accuses 27 youths and 50-60 other unknown persons.

According to the villagers in Chingrawati, the crowd gathered on 3 December comprised outsiders. “Most of the people that gathered on 3rd were not from this area. We have always maintained good relations with the police. And they behave nicely,” says Girija Kumar, a resident of Chingrawati.

Appearance of the carcass

The carcass was found on the field of Raj Kumar, a former village pradhan. His wife Preeti told this reporter that her husband saw the flesh---some of it hanging and some of it on the ground---on the morning of 3 December and immediately called the police. “After the police arrived, the officials told us to not to publicise (the finding), and the villagers and the police reached an agreement to bury it in the ground,” she says. Preeti adds that before the police could act, Bajrang Dal workers arrived at the scene and argued with the police that they had to bring this in front of the people. “They then placed the flesh in the trolley and went to Chingrawati police station,” she says.

Raj Kumar has been absconding in the aftermath of the violence fearing police crackdown. On Tuesday night, around 15-20 police officials went to his house and “started breaking our stuff”, says Preeti.

“They broke our car, fridge and many other items. And threatened saying tell Raj Kumar to either surrender or we would hit him,” she adds.

Suspecting a conspiracy behind the incident, the Uttar Pradesh police on Wednesday said that the carcass recovered in the fields of Chingrawati was at least two days old.

However, Altaf Ansar, an inspector at Syana police station, says, it cannot be confirmed yet if the flesh was two days old or not or even if was cow’s or buffalo’s. It has been sent to Forensic Sciences Laboratory in Mathura for investigation, he adds.

12-year-olds among accused of slaughtering cow

UP police have also arrested Banne, Asif and Sarfuddin in connection with the cow slaughter case, but only Sarfuddin was named in the FIR lodged at the Syana police station on the complaint of Bajarang Dal district coordinator, Yogesh Raj. Raj has been named as accused in the other FIR relating to mob violence in Syana.

The FIR in this case mentions that Sudaif Chaudhary, Sajid, Parvez, Sarfuddin, Anas, Sharafat and Iliyas were slaughtering the cow when Yogesh along with his few friends strolled into the nearby jungle on Tuesday morning.

However, Tehsildar Rajkumar Bhaskar, who was the first administrative officer to reach the spot said, “Dead cow meat was hanging in a sugarcane field. Head and skin of a cow hung as if clothes on a hanger,” and that it looked like old meat.

Bhaskar further said that the news of ‘cow carcass found in the field’ spread like a wildfire and within no time, members of right-wing Hindu outfits started an agitation and loaded the carcass in a tractor trolley.

The agitating crowd took the tractor to Chingrawati police post and tried to block the Garh Mukhteshwar-Bulandshahr highway. As police tried to disperse them, the protesters turned violent and torched several vehicles.

Among the seven accused named in the cow slaughter FIR are two kids aged 11 and 12. Yaseen, a labourer who is physically challenged having lost his right leg and is the father of Sajid, says the police came looking for his son and nephew, Anas, to their residence in Naya Bas. “We were asked to come to police station. I went there with my son and nephew and the officials were shocked to see the 12-year-olds. We sat there for 2-3 hours before they told us to leave,” says Yaseen.

Sarfuddin, another accused in the FIR was volunteering at Tableeghi Ijtema, the three-day Islamic event that went on in Bulandshahr between 1 and 3 December. Sarfuddin’s brother, Mohammed Hussain, says  his brother is a committee member at Marqas Masjid in Syana. “So, they told him to go and help in the organising of Istafa event. He left on 30 November and was there until 4 December, when he returned in the evening,” Hussain says.

On Thursday, Vishwa Hindu Parishad’s Sudarshan Chakra, who holds the post of Sangathan Prant Mantri, while addressing a press conference in Bulandshahr said that the Hindu outfit stands with Yogesh Raj and also claimed that cow slaughter is happening in Yogi’s regime. The police have failed to stop cow slaughter and more than 240 cows have been slaughtered in last six months in Bulandshahr, he alleged.