Days after communal clash in Vadodara: Man injured in police action dies

In a memorandum submitted to the police department, Arshad’s brother Munaf demanded that the policemen attached with the City Police Station, including Inspector M D Puwar, must be booked for culpable homicide amounting to murder under Section 302 of the IPC.

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In the memorandum, Munaf alleged that policemen cornered Arshad, who had stepped out of his Yakutpura home on the night of December 8 only to “find out what was happening”.

“We were preparing to sleep when the clash broke out. Out of curiosity, my brother went out to see what happened. As soon as we learnt that a clash broke out when a wedding procession was passing through the area of Ramesh Pehelwan Khancha, we called Arshad to come back home. When he was returning, he was cornered by the policemen, who fired at him and almost-fatally injured him,” Munaf said.

Critically injured, Arshad was rushed to Vadodara Institute of Neurological Sciences (VINS) in the city.

According to Munaf, “The CT (computed tomography) scan reports showed a 15.5mm bullet, which pierced his (Arshad’s) eye and entered his brain. He remained in a comatose state in the ICU for 10 days. Doctors told us that he had lost his eye sight, and operating him was dangerous.”

The bullet was not extracted from Arshad’s brain before his death, said Munaf, adding, “we are awaiting the autopsy report.”

The autopsy of Arshad at Vadodara’s SSG Hospital was being video recorded.

Rejecting the allegations of Arshad’s brother, Joint Commissioner of Police D J Patel said, “We had to resort to pellet guns during the clash as the police officers and their vehicles were attacked with country bombs. It is possible that he (Arshad) may have been injured in the pellet gun firing, but we are awaiting the autopsy report.”

Last week, representatives of the Muslim community had submitted a memorandum to the Vadodara Commissioner of Police, objecting to the use of pellet gun during the clash.