1: A Muslim man, Suleman Rahim Khan Pathan, was beaten to death over an alleged inter-community affair.
2: His family claimed that Pathan was paraded, kicked and punched. The family members were attacked too in their attempts to rescue Pathan.
3: The police have arrested eight men who will be produced in court on Thursday.
A 21-year-old man from Maharashtra’s Jalgaon district was brutally beaten to death after being paraded through his village, allegedly over his association with a 17-year-old girl from another community. His family members were also attacked when they tried to intervene.
Police said on Wednesday that the incident occurred on Monday, and eight people have been arrested so far.
According to investigators, Suleman Rahim Khan Pathan, the victim, left his home in Chhota Betawat village on Monday morning to travel to Jamner, about 15 km away, to fill out an online form for police recruitment. Around 3:30 PM, while he was sitting in a café with a girl, a group of 8–10 men arrived, seized his phone, and began checking it.
After spotting a photograph, they assaulted him and dragged him out of the café.
They took Khan back to his village, where he was paraded and repeatedly beaten, including with a stick near his home. “When Khan’s parents and sister tried to rescue him, the men assaulted them as well,” a police officer said. Khan eventually lost consciousness from the assault.
“The accused left him outside his house, believing he was dead,” the officer added.
Villagers rushed Khan to the hospital, where he was declared dead. A postmortem was conducted, and the body was handed over to his family. His father, Rahim, said, “Suleman was my only son and was preparing for a police recruitment exam. Around 15 people brought him near our house. They were kicking and punching him, some even beating him with a stick. The villagers informed us and we rushed to save our son. They were very aggressive and some of them started beating me. They did not even spare my wife, daughter and my 80-year-old father. They were also punched and kicked.”
“My son was bleeding, not a single part of the body was without a wound. They threatened the villagers, so no one came forward to help. My son was not having an affair with any girl. The affair story is completely false. They simply targeted my son,” he added.
Suleman’s family alleged that some of the accused were gau rakshaks (cow vigilantes). On August 11, Suleman had gone to Jamner to submit a police recruitment form, his relative Abdullah told Scroll. “We don’t know about the girl he went to meet,” he said. “He never told us about her.”
According to Abdullah, Suleman met the woman at the Brand Cafe in Jamner. The cafe owner identified Suleman as Muslim and the woman as Hindu, and then called several local youths. “They took him to Sonbardi temple near Jamner and brutally assaulted him,” Scroll quoted Abdullah.
Police said four suspects — Abhishek Rajkumar Rajput (22), Ghanshyam alias Suraj Bihari Lal Sharma (25), Deepak Bajirao (20), and Ranjat alias Ranjit Ramkrishna Matade (48) — were arrested on Tuesday and remanded in custody until August 18.
On Wednesday, officers arrested four more men — Aditya Devade, Krishna Teli, Shejwal Teli, and Rishikesh Teli, all in their mid-20s — from different parts of Jalgaon.
They will be produced in court Thursday, Jamner police inspector Murlidhar Kasar confirmed.
(with inputs from ANI)
