One beaten to death, another found hanging: Tension in UP village after 2 young lives lost

What is known is that Zia-ur-Rehman, 19, was bludgeoned to death at the house of his neighbour, Tanu Saini. Hours later, Tanu, 19, was also found dead, allegedly of suicide.

Amid tension as the two belonged to different faiths, a contingent of police and PAC personnel have been deployed outside the houses of both families, separated by 400 metres.

Zia’s father Mohammed Ayub, a grocery store owner in the village, which is dominated by Muslims, says they don’t know why the 19-year-old was attacked. “At around 2 am (on Wednesday), I got a call from a local policeman on my son’s mobile phone saying he was badly injured and unconscious. I rushed to the place (the Saini house) and hurried Zia to a local hospital. They said they could not attend to him because of his serious condition and so we took him to a hospital in Dehradun. He died before he could be given medical aid,” Ayub, 45, says.

Tanu’s mother Sunesh Devi Saini says they didn’t know Ayub or who beat him up. “At around midnight on Tuesday, we heard loud voices coming from our courtyard. My husband and I ran out and saw a man being beaten with lathis and iron rods by four to five outsiders.We tried to rescue him, but they continued thrashing him. We called the police and they took him away. A few hours later, six policemen accompanied by women constables came and blamed us for killing the man,” Sunesh Devi says.

Tanu’s brother, who works in Delhi but is here in the village since the incident, claims the assaulters thought Zia was a thief. “He was spotted entering our house on CCTV by around six students, who were studying in a library adjacent to our house. It was they who barged into our house and beat him up, thinking he was a thief. We, in fact, saved him and informed the police,” the brother claims.

According to the family, who are farmers, Tanu was found hanging at around 11 am on Wednesday. Sunesh Devi claims the 19-year-old killed herself out of shock after police took away her husband following Zia’s death.

“She went to her room saying she was going to change her clothes, and minutes later, her elder sister found her hanging with a dupatta from the ceiling. The women constables brought her body down,” she says.

SP (City) Abhimanyu Manglik said Ayub had named four people of Tanu’s family in the FIR filed at Rampur Maniharan police station: “Her father Janeshwar (52), his elder brother Maneshwar (55), and two cousins, Priyanshu (22) and Shivam Saini (20).” Manglik said that they were investigating the matter.

Both families claim that despite being neighbours, Zia and Tanu did not know each other. The two studied in the same pre-college till Intermediate (Class 12). Zia had enrolled in B.Sc, Nursing, after school while Tanu had dropped out.

Mohammed Imran, a neighbour of Ayub, says they do not believe Tanu’s death was due to suicide. He claims she knew Zia. There was no reason, he says, for Zia to have gone to her house in the middle of the night.

Purushottam Maurya, who lives opposite the Saini house, also says Zia and Tanu knew each other. “No one can get into the house without the gate being opened from inside,” Maurya says.

Zia’s uncle Mohammed Farman, who accompanied Ayub to the hospital in Dehradun, says the 19-year-old’s body had deep wounds on the stomach, legs and both hands.
“My nephew was a strong man, weighing around 90 kg, and he could have easily overpowered one or two men. So there were definitely four or more people who inflicted the wounds,” he says.

Tanu’s brother says they are “living in fear”. “We have lodged an FIR and pleaded for police security.”