On the night of July 26, a mob of Hindutva sympathisers forcibly entered the home of a Kargil war veteran’s family in Pune’s Chandan Nagar, accused his family of being Bangladeshi and demanded to see documents proving that they were Indian. Hours before, the same mob had similarly harassed another Muslim family who lived three houses away.
In both instances, the mob was accompanied by police officials.
As outrage over the incident grew, the police filed a first information report against seven Bajrang Dal workers who had raided the homes.
“In the garb of looking for illegal migrants, Muslims are being harassed,” said Shamshad Sheikh, whose uncle fought in the Kargil War. Sheikh and his family members were among those forced to go to the police station in the middle of the night with their documents.
“Several from our family served in the army, but we have been harassed to prove our nationality,” Sheikh said.
So far, 16 people have been named in a first information report, Chandan Nagar Police Inspector Seema Dhakne told Scroll.
Pradeep Jagannath Dhumal, the police hawaldar at the police station who is the main complainant, said that the initial FIR named seven people. “All of them are Bajrang Dal members,” Dhumal told Scroll over the phone.
Dhakne admitted to Scroll that the police had not carried out any background checks on the two Muslim families before they accompanied the Bajrang Dal workers to “question” them.
Vigilantes on the prowl
Last Saturday night, Mohammed Salman had just retired to bed when there was a long banging on the ground-floor rented apartment in Chandan Nagar that he shared with his brother’s family. Salman runs a hair-cutting salon in Pune.
“When my brother opened the door, several men came inside. They were chanting Jai Shri Ram,” he said. “They said ‘Aadhaar card nikalo, PAN card nikalo, kahan se aaye ho?’” Take out your Aadhar card, PAN card; where have you come from?
Salman has lived in Chandan Nagar for six years. “Before this we lived in another part of the city,’ he said. “My brother has lived in Pune for 17 years.”
Salman said that a man dressed in plain clothes said he was from the police and asked them if any other Muslims lived in the neighbourhood. “We were scared and told them about the Sheikh family,” said Salman. “The Sheikhs are our neighbours in Pratapgarh” in Uttar Pradesh.
The Hindutva workers and the accompanying police called Salman’s landlord, who lived on the upper floor, to show identity proof. When contacted, the landlord refused to comment.
A family of soldiers
The mob then went next door into Sheikh’s home. “There were about 60 to 70 of them,” Shamshad Sheikh told Scroll. “They went into our bedrooms, abused women and threatened children.”
Sheikh, runs a transport business and lives in the residential locality. His extended family of 30, including his four brothers, live in the three adjoining houses. Sheikh’s uncle Hakiumuddin served in the Indian Army and fought in the Kargil War. Hakimuddin currently lives in Pratapgarh.
Hakimuddin’s uncle – Sheikh’s great-uncle – was also an Indian Army war veteran: he fought in the 1965 war against Pakistan and later in 1971. Several members of the family have served in the Indian army.
Sheikh said five to seven men kept barging into the house while the rest stood outside and called them “Bangladeshis”. “We showed them our Aadhaar card, our PAN card,” he said. “But they said the documents were fake.”
Sheikh said that people in the mob identified themselves as Bajrang Dal members.
The mob forced Sheikh’s family to go to the Chandan Nagar police station. “One person identified himself as a policeman,” said Sheikh. “He was in plain clothes. He said the women and children could stay behind.”
Sheikh, his brothers, uncle and their sons, and their neighbours Salman and his brother took their identification documents to the Chandan Nagar police station and waited there till 2.30 am.
“The police inspector told us to come again by 11 am the next day,” said Sheikh. “She said that if we didn’t come, we would be declared as Bangladeshis.”
Chandan Nagar Police Inspector Dhakne refuted the allegation that she had threatened to declare the Sheikh family as Bangladeshis. “I just asked them to return and submit their documents the next day,” Dhakne told Scroll.
The family returned to the police station with their documents the next day. “After that nobody harassed us,” said Sheikh.
Policemen in plainclothes were with the mob, alleged the families, which the police later confirmed.
‘The tip’
Dhakne said that the Bajrang Dal told the police that some men from Assam were living in the area. She said the police team went directly to the spot with Bajrang Dal members without making any other inquiries.
“We suspected them to be Bangladeshis,” she said. “If we get a tip, we will visit the spot. Some of our officers from the detection team wore civil clothes.”
Dhakne added: “We ask the suspects to show identification proof, details of native village, the local police station and we verify their details and leave them. The same protocol was carried out in this case.”
In the initial FIR against the Hindutva mob, the police invoked sections of the Bharatiya Nyaya Sanahita for unlawful assembly, disobeying public servants and creating public nuisance.
But outrage grew over the harassment of a Kargil war veteran’s family. The 26th anniversary of the Kargil War was marked across India on the same day – July 26.
The police have added more stringent charges under Section 115 for causing voluntary hurt, Section 329 for criminal trespass, Section 353 for circulating false information and Section 299 for outraging religious feelings.
Deputy commissioner of Police Somay Munde did not respond to calls or messages from Scroll.
Officials from the Mumbai police told Scroll that they usually check the call data records of suspects to see if any phone calls have been made or received from Bangladesh before detaining people for questioning.
However, Dhakne said they “did not verify call records”.
‘Police complicit’
Milind Champanerkar, general secretary of People’s Union for Civil Liberties, said it was a worrying pattern that “even the police is complicit in anti-Muslim agenda”.
“About three months ago a Muslim salon owner was assaulted in Pune’s Kothrud area because of his faith,” said Champanerkar. “But the police did nothing, did not detain or arrest anyone.”
Champanerkar said the police are dutybound to safeguard citizens. “How can the police allow the Bajrang Dal to take the lead?” he asked, pointing out that no one from the outfit had been arrested so far for intruding into the homes of others.
Firoz Khan, who runs a charitable organisation and is a member of the Republican Party of India in Pune, said communal incidents have increased lately. “And all this is happening with complete knowledge of the police,” he said.
