An FIR was filed late Wednesday regarding the exhumation of a body from a graveyard in Udaipur allegedly because the man had refused to be identified with any Islamic sect while alive.
The FIR was registered under Indian Penal Code (IPC) sections 297 (trespassing on burial places, etc.) and 270 (malignant act likely to spread infection of disease dangerous to life) against one Mohammad Silawat for allegedly leading the exhumation, as well as Badre Alam, Shakir Maulana and Zulkarnain for allegedly inciting people to exhume the body, said Sub-Inspector Rajesh Sharma, Station House Officer at Hathipole police station.
He added that Silawat is a member of the committee that is in charge of the graveyard, where the body had been buried. The FIR has also been lodged against 4-5 unnamed persons, apart from the four named persons, Sharma said.
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Mohammad Yusuf, 88, passed away in Rajasthan’s Udaipur district on Tuesday, and was buried at a local graveyard but was soon exhumed by some locals allegedly belonging to the Barelvi sect. They allegedly said Yusuf belonged to the Wahabi sect and hence could not be buried there, and sent Yusuf’s body back home in an ambulance. Yusuf’s family and relatives then took him to their native village in Mandsaur, Madhya Pradesh, where he was finally buried.
Read | Rajasthan: Man’s body exhumed as he ‘didn’t identify with sect’
Investigating Officer Rajendra Singh said that members of Moiniya Islamic Education Society (MIES) had submitted a complaint, on the basis of which an FIR was filed. “A delegation met Udaipur SP Rajender Prasad Wednesday evening, and later, at about 9 pm, an FIR was registered at Hathipole police station,” said Abdul Qadir, Udaipur in-charge of MIES, who was a part of the delegation. “There is a very clear sectarian distinction in Udaipur among Muslims, be it in mosques or graveyards, and is pushed by radical Barelvis. But nowhere in the world has such an incident taken place,” he said.
Yusuf’s son Hamid Husain said that action should be taken against the guilty and that he would support the police in their investigation.
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