Kin of ‘lynched’ Chhattisgarh worker arrives in Ahmedabad to collect body

Mehmedabad police sub-inspector Dilip Singh Rathod, who was also present at Ahmedabad civil hospital for the remaining post-mortem procedures, said, “The village is just two kilometres from the Ahmedabad-Vadodara Expressway. In the investigation so far, we still do not know how he travelled to that place. But he got into a scuffle with Vishnu Sodha, 28, one of the accused. Sodha is also the one who had severely hit Kherawar on his head when he was tied to the pole. Language seemed to be a major barrier in the case. Neither could they understand what the victim tried to say nor did the victim. They took him to be a thief who had got into his village to steal their cattle or other belongings.”

Some villagers intervened later, and the sarpanch called the police. Then, we brought him to the civil hospital for treatment. The local police informed one of the other brothers-in-law of Kherawar and intimated about the death Monday morning.

Kherawar’s father and his siblings live in Harigawan village, which is 6 kms away from Madhana, where his brother-in-law lives. “Kherawar’s father-in-law had given him land as a wedding gift, and since then, he had been living there where he built a house,” added Baram. Ramesh is the second of the five siblings.

All the three are farmers and grow paddy. “Even Kherawar used to grow paddy until four years ago. Then he took to work as a construction labourer. We did not understand why he did that, but he did,” said the deceased’s father.

According to his family members, Kherawar had gone for work outside the village thrice a year. “This was his third time. The supervisor had told us that he left because he did not want to work anymore, and wanted to be back,” said Baram.

Kherawar never carried a phone and used to call his family on his brother-in-law’s phones with the help of a friend where he worked. “My brother got a call and was initially told that Kherawar was sick and admitted here. Later, they confirmed he was dead. The local police also came and told us the whole incident. But we still do not know why and how this happened. We just know he is dead,” said Sundar Singh.

“We later also got to know that he was probably returning back through that route by train and got down at the railway station when this incident took place,” said Baram.

No compensation from the authorities or any further action was claimed by the family members of the deceased.