Mob doused house with kerosene and warned us: Dadri victim’s daughter

According to Saista, 15-20 people entered their house in Bisara village at about 10:15 pm, and attacked her father and brother. Naming 15 people who were part of the mob, she said: “Among them, Vivek had an iron rod (sariya) in his hand, others had sticks in their hands. There were some other people I didn’t recognise.”

The police chargesheet against 15 people, including a juvenile, says that five sticks and an iron rod with blood stains, apart from blood-stained clothes, shoes and unidentified meat, were recovered. Police said a supplementary chargesheet against four other accused — two are still at large — would be filed later.

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In her statement, Saista also mentioned the allegations levelled by the mob. “We did not kill a cow. The mob which entered our house took out meat from our refrigerator. That was goat’s meat which our relatives had sent. Those people took that meat with them,” she said.

According to her, the family was about to retire for the night, when there was “an announcement at the temple” that someone had “slaughtered a cow”.

“Many people assembled outside our house and were shouting abuses, naming my father and brother. They broke our door and entered the house… My father, brother Danish and I were upstairs. My mother and grandmother were downstairs. My mother and grandmother asked them what was the matter, my father also asked… When they saw my father, these people came upstairs,” Saista told the magistrate.

According to her statement, her family tried to lock themselves in some rooms, but the mob broke the doors and attacked them. “We kept crying and screaming, asking them… why they were beating us. They said, ‘you have slaughtered a cow, we will not leave you alive’. When my mother, grandmother and I tried to intervene, they punched us and pushed us. These people kept beating my father and brother mercilessly. Thinking that Danish was dead they left him and dragged my father outside,” she said.

Besides Saista’s statement, the chargesheet mentions that there are 24 other witnesses.