‘We have been saying this’: Police confirm ragpicker killed over meat that wasn’t beef

Nearly two months after Malik, a migrant worker from West Bengal who worked as a ragpicker in Haryana’s Charkhi Dadri, was killed over the suspicion that he had cooked and consumed beef at his jhuggi, the police said on Friday that a lab report showed the meat was not of cattle. Ten people have been arrested in the case with six arrests pending, police said.

On August 27, Malik and his friend Aseeruddin were called to a shop by the accused under the pretence of selling empty plastic bottles, and assaulted. While Aseeruddin managed to escape, the accused took Malik on a motorbike to another location and allegedly assaulted him again, which led to his death. His body was later found near the shanties where he stayed, police had said.

In fact, hours before he was killed, the police were called to the village by a group of youths who claimed beef was being cooked and consumed in shanties there. Even as the meat was seized by the police and sent for testing, the accused decided to take the law into their own hands and beat Malik to death, officers said.
On Friday, Bharat Bhushan, Deputy Superintendent of Police, Badhra, told The Indian Express: “The cooked meat collected from the spot was sent to a molecular lab in Faridabad. It has emerged that the meat was not cattle’s.”

Pooja Vasisht, Superintendent of Police, Charkhi Dadri, said, “We have arrested 10 people and this report will be submitted in the court along with the challan.” Six others will be arrested soon, said Bhushan.

The complainant in the case, Sardar (21), is now back in Kolkata with Malik’s wife and Sardar’s sister Shakeela and her three-year-old daughter. He said they were aware of the Haryana cow protection acts. “We had been staying there for five years and never flouted the law. The allegations were levelled against Sabir after a few workers from Assam were questioned by their contractor on what they had cooked. Then cow vigilantes were informed. My brother, father and I were taken to the police station to ask if we had beef. They said the village was on edge and we might get into trouble if we went home. When they visited the village to collect the meat, they could have taken Sabir and others with them. Had the police stood guard until things settled down, Sabir would not have been killed,” he said.

Sardar said that from the police station, he called up his sister to check on Sabir, but she said he had stepped out. “When he didn’t return in an hour, we asked the police to check. Around 4.30 pm, we were informed that he was in the hospital. He had died by then,” Sardar said. “After his post-mortem, they asked us to bury him there, but we begged them to let us take the body back home.”

Shakeela, Malik’s wife, has been given a job by the West Bengal government, the family said.

Another relative who lived in the same shanties, Alauddin Sardar (28), said they are yet to get the post-mortem report and death certificate. “We left behind all our belongings and possessions, worth Rs 2 lakh, after his death. We have not gone back due to fear. The police are yet to arrest a few people and the group that watched him get assaulted comprised several people,” he said.

One of the accused, Ravinder, was the district head of the Haryana Gau Raksha Dal, said the Bhiwani head of the organisation, Sanjay Parmar. “The accused were a part of Ravinder’s team. We have faith in law and order and will let the law take its course,” he said. Ravinder’s friend and social activist, Shivendra Rimpi Phogat, said, “There were repeated tip-offs regarding cow slaughter in the area and our men had informed the police. It was wrong of them to take the law into their hands, but the police did little to avert the incident,” he said. On the lab report, Phogat claimed the police had fudged the sample.