MANGALURU: Sayeeda, widow of Abdul Jaleel who was killed in the police firing on anti-CAA protestors in Mangaluru, in a written statement before the magisterial enquiry being conducted into the incident, on Tuesday said that her husband was killed in front of her eyes.
Sayeeda who could not appear before the magistrate in person as she is observing 'Iddat' handed over the written statement through her daughter Kathija Shifani and son Mohammed Sabeel. The statement says that on December 19 at around 4.15, she and her husband Jaleel were worried over the tense atmosphere in the locality because of the anti-CAA protests as it was during the same time that their children used to return home from school. “Hence I asked my husband to immediately go to school and then bring the children back home and he did the same. By then, the crowd in the vicinity had decreased.”
Since it was prayer time, Sayeeda said her husband left the home saying that he will go to Badriya mosque for namaz and come back. “As I was worried, I was watching him go through the window of the house. As he stepped onto the road in front of the house, he was shot by the police and killed. The incident happened in front of my eyes,” said Sayeeda.
She claimed that her husband had neither troubled anyone nor had any criminal case against lodged against him. He was not associated with any organisations or took part in any protect. Even he did not take part in December 19 protest or threw stones on public or police.
“But the police have cooked up a story that he was shot as he pelted stones on cops,” she alleged. Sayeeda said immediately after the death of her husband, she had lodged a written complaint with Pandeshwar police but so far no FIR has not been booked on its basis.
Referring to a video in which a police officer is heard asking why no one died despite several rounds of firing, Sayeeda said it appears that the cops were biased and intended to kill people. She has demanded stern action against the cops who fired at her husband and senior officials who ordered firing.