Bihar police on Saturday said the Muslim man, who was lynched in Bihar’s Samastipur on February 16 after being questioned over cow slaughter, was known to his assailants. Officers investigating the incident a financial dispute was the reason for the brutal assault on Mohammed Khalil Alam, a small-time Janata Dal (United) worker who had allegedly borrowed money from one of the assailants, Anurag Jha alias Bittu.
“The confessional statement of the arrested assailants states that they committed the crime for money. Paise ke len-den mein hatya hui hai, aur kuch nahi (The killing took place because of money and nothing else),” said Samastipur Superintendent of Police Hriday Kant.
According to Samastipur SHO Bikram Acharya, who was part of the special investigation team (SIT) set up to investigate the case, Alam had not returned the loan despite repeated reminders from Jha.
“On February 16, Bittu and his friends spotted Alam at Musrigharari and persuaded him to come with them to the poultry farm of another friend, Vipul Jha, at Vasdeopur village,” Mr Acharya said. There, they transferred Alam’s SIM card to Vipul’s cell phone and called his wife Nemat Khatoon demanding the ₹2.75 lakh which he allegedly owed. They then proceeded to beat him to death.
On February 17, Alam’s elder brother Mohammed Sitare lodged a missing person report at Musrigharari police station. Alam’s half-burnt body was recovered from a ditch on the banks of Budhi Gandak river the next day. Vipul was arrested the very same day. Later Bittu released a video of the lynching on social media on February 21.
Vipul’s questioning led to the arrest of Bittu and two others, Kishan Jha and Rajesh Mishra. The four have been sent to jail but Satyavachan Singh, the fifth accused, is still absconding.
While the police said there was no communal angle to the incident, officials also said the accused hoped to create a communal situation by shooting and releasing the video of the crime.
“They made a video of Alam being beaten and being asked questions... whether he has eaten beef, in which locality of Musrigharari the cow was slaughtered, who are involved in the beef trade in the area etc. , to give the incident a communal twist if they were caught,” said Musrigharari police station in-charge Mohammed Aftab Alam.
Mr. Kant, the Samastipur SP, concurred: “They might have made their video with the ulterior motive of fomenting communal tension and to divert police attention and flee from the place.”
On how communal tensions would help criminals escape from a murderous assault, the police said the accused did not expect the victim to die. “As they have confessed, the intention of the assailants was not to kill Alam but threaten him. However, he died of their beating,” said Mr. Acharya.
