[Faizan was one of more than 50 who died in the deadliest Hindu-Muslim violence in Delhi in over seven decades. Police were later criticized for failing to quell the clashes and in some cases were accused of participating in them. Hundreds of people from both communities have been arrested in many of the killings. But more than a year later, no one has been charged in Faizan’s death, raising questions about the police department’s ability to act as an impartial investigator in instances of police brutality.]
By Niha Masih
His mother got home safely. Faizan
did not.
That afternoon, half a dozen
policemen in helmets and riot gear converged on the 23-year-old Faizan, a
meat-shop worker. Wielding batons and wooden sticks, they first beat him,
repeatedly striking his head, and then taunted a group of injured men —
including Faizan — to sing the national anthem. The assault was caught on
multiple videos.
Later that night, Faizan, who used
only one name, was held at a police station without charge. When he was
released the next night, he could barely walk, recounted his mother,
Kismatun, 61.
“They beat him mercilessly,” said
Kismatun, who also goes by one name. “When we got him home, I had to cut off
his clothes. He couldn’t even raise his hands.”
He died at a hospital the following
day. The postmortem report detailed 20 wounds on his body and said he died as a
result of a head injury.
Faizan was one of more than 50 who
died in the deadliest Hindu-Muslim violence in Delhi in over seven
decades. Police were later criticized for failing to quell the clashes and in some cases were
accused of participating in them. Hundreds of people from both communities have
been arrested in many of the killings. But more than a year later, no one has
been charged in Faizan’s death, raising questions about the police department’s
ability to act as an impartial investigator in instances of police brutality.
In response to a petition filed by
Faizan’s mother seeking a court-monitored inquiry into his death, the police
said an investigation of the identity of policemen in the videos was underway.
Chinmoy Biswal, a spokesman for the Delhi police, said he would not comment on
matters under investigation and ongoing in court.
The riots in Delhi broke out after
months of protests led by Muslims across the country over a controversial law
that expedites citizenship for migrants of six religions but excludes Islam —
the faith of 200 million Indians. Critics called the law unconstitutional.
Some members of the ruling
Bharatiya Janata Party sought to paint the protests as the handiwork of traitors. The violence in India’s capital erupted after a
speech by Kapil Mishra, a BJP leader, threatening to clear a sit-in by Muslim
women.
Most of those who were killed were
Muslims. More than a dozen Hindus also died, including a police officer who was
shot and an intelligence officer who was stabbed. Hundreds of Muslim families
fled their homes in Hindu-majority neighborhoods where they had lived all their
lives. Mosques were vandalized, shops looted and homes ransacked in clashes
that lasted over two days, while President Donald Trump was in Delhi for a state visit.
The uproar over the citizenship law
was only the latest point of friction between religious groups during the
tenure of Indian Prime Minister Narendra Modi, who has pursued his party’s
agenda of Hindu primacy in the secular republic of over 1.3 billion people.
The government has revoked the autonomy of Kashmir, the country’s only
Muslim-majority state; passed the citizenship law amid robust opposition; and laid the foundation of a grand Hindu temple where a
mosque was razed illegally by a mob led by members of the BJP in the 1990s.
During the coronavirus pandemic, the emergence of a Muslim missionary group’s
gathering as a superspreader event unleashed a wave of Islamophobia in the country.
[What
Delhi’s worst communal violence in decades means for Modi’s India]
Two recent global democracy reports
downgraded India’s status, citing a decline in freedom of
expression, the harassment of journalists and its conduct toward religious
minorities, especially Muslims.
Faizan and the other men beaten by
the police on camera were “being targeted on account of their religious
identity,” said Vrinda Grover, a lawyer representing Kismatun. “This is a very
clear and lethal illustration of institutional bias present in our law
enforcement agencies.”
An investigation by Amnesty
International India six months after the riots documented a “disturbing
pattern of grave human rights violations” committed by Delhi police
that went unpunished
The police responded to the Amnesty
report by issuing a statement that questioned the credibility of the
organization, calling it “lopsided” and “biased.” Amnesty International ceased its human rights work in India in
September after authorities investigating the group’s funding sources froze its
bank accounts.
Police charge sheets describe the
riots as a “sinister conspiracy” to embarrass the Modi government during
Trump’s visit. But critics, including a group
of retired Indian police officers, say the probe of the riots has been
flawed. In cases of murder and possession of weapons, 212 Muslims and 178 Hindus have been arrested, according to
reporting by Indian Express, even though twice as many Muslims were killed. No action has been
taken against leaders of the ruling party, such as Mishra, whose speech
preceded the violence.
Among those charged by the police
with conspiring to engineer riots are more than a dozen Muslim men and women,
including student leaders, many of whom have spent months in jail under a
stringent anti-terrorism law. One of those arrested included a pregnant student
leader who had created a WhatsApp group to coordinate protests, one of the few
suspects to be granted bail on “humanitarian grounds.” Two Hindu student leaders of a
feminist collective have also been arrested on conspiracy charges.
The charging documents in the case also
mention a leading human rights activist, a professor and two filmmakers — all
critics of the Modi government. The investigation in the riot cases “has been
fair and impartial,” said Biswal, the police spokesman. “There is no question
of any bias.”
In court filings in Faizan’s case,
the police say they have enlisted an expert to enhance images from the video to
identify the perpetrators of the beating. They claim Faizan was seen “standing”
among a mob throwing stones in media footage obtained by them and that he was
held at the police station at his own request because of the riots.
The family says the police claim is
hard to believe, because Faizan had been beaten by them. They also say that
Faizan might have lived if he had received immediate medical care and not been
detained. In March, the police told a court that the closed-circuit TV camera
at the police station where Faizan was held for over 24 hours was not
functional.
Faizan’s elder brother, Nadeem, now
looks after his beloved pigeons. For Kismatun, who lost her husband in a road
accident when Faizan was a toddler, the wound is deep.
“The police are protecting their
own,” she said. “But I lost my dear son. I will not give up.”
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