Before dying, UP teenager told police he was set ablaze for not chanting ‘Jai Shri Ram’

A few days ago, a Muslim teenager from Uttar Pradesh’s Chandauli district died after he was allegedly set ablaze by a group of men for refusing to chant ‘Jai Shri Ram’ slogan.

Fifteen-year-old Abdul Khaliq Ansari was found with 45% burn injuries in Syedraja area, 10 km away from his house in Lohia Nagar, on July 28. He was immediately rushed to the district hospital and was later shifted to the divisional hospital in Varanasi.

Before dying the young boy recorded his statement on camera. “I was strolling on the Dudhari bridge after offering prayers early Sunday morning and then I was kidnapped by four persons who had covered their faces. These people asked me to chant ‘Jai Shree Ram’ and they poured kerosene on me and burnt me when I refused to chant it,” he said in his dying declaration.

“They had their faces covered and my hands were caught by two of them. One of them said, Sunil mitti ka tel daal de aur maachis laga de, ye khud mar jayega,” the deceased said this on camera while he was undergoing treatment at the burn ward of Kabir Chauraha Hospital.

The police, however, has refuted any communal or hate angle behind this incident and said the deceased and his mother were tutored by ‘anti-social’ elements to get more traction.

Chandauli Superintendent of Police (SP) Santosh Kumar told Fact Checker, “The youth and his mother were tutored by anti-social elements to get more traction out of it. The statements of the youth have changed numerous times and each time there was a different narration and different location of the incident.”

According to him, the deceased told the police response vehicle (PRV) team that he was attacked by four youths in Manrajpur for not chanting ‘Jai Shri Ram’ and then set ablaze. “When I spoke to him he told me that the incident happened in Chateen village which is 2 km away from Manrajpur and in the opposite direction. He told the same thing to the doctors also but later on while going to the divisional hospital in Varanasi he told the police that he was kidnapped by four youths from Dudhari bridge who set him on fire in the fields near the Bhatija mod (crossing),” the SP said.

The district police chief said the investigation is going on and it very much seems that the youth was “tutored”.

“The CCTVs installed on all the three directions have been checked by the police and he was not found coming or going from any of the ways. A CCTV on the west has footage where the youth can be seen walking in burnt state at about 5:15 or 5:20 in the morning. A newspaper hawker had seen him setting himself on fire and running from the spot. The clothes of the boy were found in burnt condition about 1.5 km from the spot,” Kumar said.

The district SP, however, declined the reporter’s request to connect him with the newspaper hawker who is a witness of the boy setting him ablaze.

An FIR under sections 326 (voluntarily causing grievous hurt) and 307 (attempt to murder) have been registered at the Syedraja police station in this case.

Saidul Nisha, the mother of the deceased, said, “My child is dead and he was burnt down. Now the police is coming up with different theories like he set himself on fire but it is wrong. They killed Mohammad (Khaliq). I cannot speak more. I am in no position to speak. Please give me some time to grieve my son’s death,” she said.

Saidul is a mother of ten kids and her husband Zulfiquar is a carpet weaver.

Sahab Ansari, another neighbour, says, “A boy has been killed and the police is trying to close the case by saying that the statement of the boy was inconsistent. The police must have recorded the statement and it should make it public.”

He also complained that due to heavy police deployment in the house, they are unable to speak to the family. “It is not fair. The police is diverting the case in another direction,” he said.

Another neighbour, Zafar Hussain, however, has a different story to narrate. The former corporator claims that there is no communal angle in this incident. Alleging that the mother of the teenager is not speaking the truth, he said, “She knows everything. Tell me why was her son out for the whole night and this is purely an attempt to disrupt the peace of the area.”

He even claimed that when he took the case to the police, his mother, Saidul, asked him to get a few random Yadav names in the FIR. “I declined it. I also mourn the death of the young boy but it is very much clear that the family is not telling the truth.”