Shahpur clash: Locals call police probe a ‘cooked up story’ to justify previous arrest

Shehzad Sheikh from Shahpur, who runs a roadside eatery, said, “The team of police and first patrolled in the entire patch from Shahpur crossroads towards Rangila Chowky for half-an-hour or so and  we thought it was a regular patrol. They suddenly reached a small house near Burkha Posh Masjid and claimed they are checking homes for security. At one house while checking they crime branch officers claimed that that the family is hiding beef in the house and when the family protested they pushed the men aside and decided to comb”.

Sheikh added that they checked restaurants and fry centres at Shahpur adda and claimed that they knew that the men in the area between Rangila police chowy to Burkha Posh Masjid were into  illegal beef trade.

The police then searched at the house of another resident a few steps away from the first house however the member protested saying they had  no beef in the house.

A resident who wished anonymity, said, “They claimed  that the two men in the house have been illegally trading in cow slaughter and they had leads on that. When the men opposed, they dragged one of them out and asked him to co-operate. This led to a commotion and the mob gathered. The mob and police had a verbal duel for long and people protested against them”.

He added, “The Ahmedabad Crime Branch has rounded up several men from Shahpur and neighbouring Dariapur in the name of cow slaughter. They claim that we run a network with the butchers; if so they should have arrested the suspect they identified immediately. If they didn’t know who the alleged suspects are, how can they knock at three to four random homes and levy false allegations”.

The Shahpur residents showed extreme anger against the cops stating that the police have been levying allegations on them because a majority of them are running local restaurants and fry centres in Shahpur adda.

Another resident Habib Munsaf Sheikh said, “When we first spoke to the cops who came, they claimed they had come to check on beef. When the arguments heated up they claimed that they wanted to round up suspects. They had no evidence or concrete information with them and went on questioning residents. When the arguments heated up the crime branch officials threatened to round up all those protesting and this led to anger that fuelled the clashes. They wanted to prove that we were part of the butcher’s gangs”.

The Ahmedabad Crime Branch officials who were in Shahpur on October 5 said that the city police and crime branch were trying to break network of butchers in the city like Hanif Langda of Mirzapur who has been allegedly running a city wide network of cow slaughter since years.

In the Mirzapur incident (October 3), the Ahmedabad Police had rescued 14 cattle from a tempo and booked a case against Hanif Langda and five others. On second consecutive day (October 4), crime branch Inspector Bhavesh Rojiya fired at a tempo in Shaibaug and arrested two for illegally trading in beef however no beef or cattle was found from the tempo. On the third day (October 5), the team of crime branch went to Shahpur and the clashes broke out when the residents asked for evidence and police couldn’t justify their claims that residents had stored beef at their homes.

A senior IPS officer at the spot during clashes said, “When the clashes broke out, the crime branch said that they were on routine check but mob attacked them. However when the situation went out of control they said they had gone to arrest suspects who were aiding the duo arrested in Shahibaug incident and Mirzapur incidents. They claimed that since they were tracing hidden beef, mob ganged up to safeguard their network”.

The officer added that the top cops are looking into the matter to see as to what was the ‘checking’ all about. Jt CP Ahmedabad Crime Branch, AK Sharma said, “The investigation was being done by Ahmedabad city police into these cases and only they can talk about the checking at Shahpur and what led to this incident. The statements of concerned persons will be recorded and it will be thoroughly looked into as to what actually happened over there”.

The death of Shahpur youth has only fuelled the anger of the people further who expressed that they would make a representation to the Ahmedbad top cop against the cops who have been rounding up men from their area without substantial evidence or information.