Patna: A 40-year-old Muslim street vendor, Mohammad Athar Hussain, succumbed to his injuries on Friday, December 12, at Sadar Hospital in Nawada, Bihar, after a brutal assault.
The attack took place on December 5, when a group of men approached him, forced him off his bicycle, and locked him in a room, where they humiliatingly checked his “Muslim” identity by asking him to undress.
A video of Hussain’s last statement that emerged on December 12 has gone viral, where he described the disturbing details of the lynching and accused a group of men of the assault over his religious identity.
“Five people stopped me and started checking my pockets, took me to a room and locked me up. They told me to open my pants to make sure I am a Muslim. After that, they started beating me and burning my skin,” Hussain recounted the incident.
The victim suffered from major bodily and burn injuries. In the video, Hussain alleged that the mob even crushed his feet, fingers and ears with pliers and repeatedly hit him with bricks. He was beaten with iron rods, sticks and one person also stomped on his chest, and allegedly poured petrol on his body, in an attempt to burn him.
How the incident unfolded
On Friday late at night, the police received an emergency 112 call of an assault taking place in the Bhatta village under the Roh police station jurisdiction.
According to Nawada police station sub-divisional police officer (SDP) Hulash Kumar, it was a scene of utter chaos as a large mob attacked Hussain indiscriminately. The main accused, Sikandar Yadav, said the Muslim man was being “punished” for stealing.
A severely injured Hussain was rushed to the Roh Public Health Centre (PHC) in the early hours of December 6.
Sikandar Yadav, in his police complaint, stated that Hussain stole from his house. A case was booked against the Muslim man under the section of theft while the latter underwent treatment.
His wife, Shabnam Parveen, also filed a counter-complaint on the same day of the assault, stating her husband was assaulted on suspicion of theft.
Speaking to local media, Parveen alleged her husband was continuously shifted to different hospitals before getting treatment in Nawada Sadar Hospital. “I kept requesting the police to shift him to a private hospital, but they refused. He was later moved to Pawapuri and subsequently to Bihar Sharif Sadar Hospital, where he died,” she said.
She later alleged that the initial FIR was filed to “divert attention from the mob attack” and insisted that the case was motivated by Islamaphobia.
Hussain came from the Gagan Dewan village in Nalanda district and had been staying in Nawada for almost 20 years, selling clothes to support his family. He was the sole breadwinner and is survived by three children.
Police’s polarising statement
Speaking to Siasat.com, SDP Hulash Kumar said the assault was never looked through the lens of a hate crime, since their investigation up until the emergence of the video never revealed a religious connotation. “See, demographically speaking, the area has both Yadavs and Muslims, and even in the mob, there was a Muslim involved, named Chote Miya, who is on the run,” he said.
The officer also brings up the initial complaint filed by the victim’s wife, which does not mention an assault based on a religious hate crime. “Until the video surfaced, we never considered it a religious hate crime. The investigation had never taken the route,” the officer said, adding that the rhetoric changed after the video.
“The police have an understanding that the attack was based on theft, not on religious identity,” he said.
According to the SDP, within five minutes of the case being reported, Sikandar Yadav, Ranjan Kumar, Kedar Yadav, Gariban Yadav, Yadu Yadav, Chandan Yadav and 11 others have been arrested.
As of yet, the hospital has not released the postmortem report to the police.
| Edited by Veena Nair | 
