BHOPAL: In the case relating to the violence that broke out during Ram Navami in Khargone, it has come to light that two more persons whose names figure in the police FIR were not in the city on the said day. This comes shortly after it came to light that the names of three persons who were in prison figure in the FIR.
Police had booked two men identified as Farid and Azam in connection with the April 10 violence in Khargone's Sanjay Nagar area. But lately, it has come to light that both Farid and Azam were either hospitalized or out of Khargone on the day the violence happened.
Interestingly, Farid has been named in two cases of rioting registered at the Khargone police station on April 11 and 12, Azam is named among the co-accused with Farid in the FIR lodged on April 12.
The twosome was among those booked u/s IPC Sections 147, 148, 149, 294, 336, 427, 435 and 436 for allegedly indulging in rioting and setting ablaze properties of local residents on April 10 in the same Sanjay Nagar area where they reside.
Farid was in a hospital on the day, says his sister-in-law Anjum Bi.
"My brother-in-law Farid was hospitalized at the Khargone District Hospital's Orthopaedic Trauma Ward between April 9 and 11, after being injured due to a fall while cleaning the house," says Anjum Bi.
"How can my brother-in-law commit any crime, when he was under treatment at the hospital from April 9 to April 11. He has been untraceable from the day he was discharged from the hospital on April 11 and his phone remains switched off," she said.
During the 2015 communal violence also, our relatives were named in the FIR, despite having no role in the violence. Later, their names were removed from the case following our applications," Anjum Bi said.
It's not just Farid, but also other members of the family, including his brother Rafiq (Anjum Bi's husband) and father Subaan, who are among the 11 named accused in the FIR lodged on April 11.
Their co-accused in the other case is Azam (a freight vehicle driver resident of Sanjay Nagar only) in the FIR lodged on April 11.
Azam's wife Farida, however, says that her husband was not even in Khargone when the violence happened on April 10.
"He (Azam) had left Khargone on April 8 with bakery products for Karnataka. On April 9, he rang us informing us that he was suffering from piles and had seen a doctor in Karnataka. On return with some products in the same loading vehicle with which he left for Karnataka on April 8, he left from Solapur for Dhule in Maharashtra. He left with the loading vehicle with more goods from Dhule to Indore on April 13 and reached Indore on April 14. He called us from Indore on April 14 and informed us that he was falsely named in the FIR in Khargone. Since then he is untraceable. We don't know where he is now, we're worried about his safety and want justice," Farida said.
When questioned about the two FIRs lodged by Khargone Kotwali, the commandant of MP Police's Special Armed Force (SAF) 25th Battalion Ankit Jaiswal (deployed in Khargone presently) said "all the FIRs have been lodged on the complaints of victims. If the allegations of the kin of those named as accused are found true, then corrective action would be done during investigations."
This goof up by police, as alleged by the kin of two men in Khargone, came to the fore, just two days after a similar alleged goof-up of three men lodged in jail since March 11 in an attempt to murder case, were found to be booked by police in an April 10 communal violence case in Sendhwa town of Barwani district.
Importantly, communal violence was reported from the Sendhwa town of Barwani district and the Khargone town of Khargone district following an attack on April 10. Curfew was clamped with Khargone on April 10 evening and continues till date, with some relaxations.
A team of social activists and advocates, comprising Narmada Bachao Andolan (NBA) leader Medha Patkar and Supreme Court advocate Ehtesham Hashmi was in Khargone on Saturday to meet the victims of the April 10 communal violence in Khargone town and Barwani district's Sendhwa town, but the local authorities and police allegedly didn't allow them to meet the victims, citing security reasons.
"There is something wrong which is being hidden. We've come to know about an FIR in Sendhwa against three men who were lodged in jail since last month. Owing to these reasons, we'll be petitioning the MP High Court soon, seeking a probe by an independent agency into the entire violence and subsequent action. If needed a petition will be filed in the Supreme Court under Article 32 in the future," the SC advocate Ehtesham Hashmi had said on Saturday.