A team of the CPI(M), including Polit Bureau member Brinda Karat, met the grieving family of Aryan Mishra in their Faridabad home yesterday (September 5). Aryan Mishra was shot dead on August 23 by a gang of men, subsequently identified as a so-called Gaurakshak gang. Having spoken to the family in detail, the CPI(M) team raised serious issues regarding the Haryana government, administration and Haryana police. Apart from Brinda Karat, other members were Rajiv Kunwar [Delhi state secretariat member, CPI(M)], Shiv Prasad [Faridabad District Secretary], Virinder Dangial, Vijay Jha ( District Committee members) and others.
The Mishra family is a poor family with one earning member. The team met his father Siyanand, mother Uma and brother Ajay. Aryan was studying for Class 12 and simultaneously training in a Ghaziabad small company for social media branding. He was deeply religious and had recently visited Ayodhya temple and other temples. He was a keen body builder and only recently won a prize for weightlifting. His mother sometimes skipped meals to ensure her son could get the nutrition he needed. She is deeply traumatised and has had to be hospitalised because of frequent bouts of fainting. The family is in economic distress. The team also met Aryan’s tutor who spoke about his determination to do his exams well.
1. The Mishra family had taken loans to pay for a long lease for the small two room flat they live in Faridabad. When after a few months they came to know that the landlord’s family included criminals, they wished to leave but were unable to as the landlord said he was unable to return the money. In a way they were trapped into staying on. According to the Mishras, the role of the landlord’s family is extremely suspect but the police are protecting them. The 19 year old Aryan, who was preparing to sleep that night, was suddenly called by his landlord at around 11 p.m. He went down and did not return. Later the landlord and his wife informed the family of an “accident”, then again that he had been shot. Surprisingly the police have made no effort to question the landlord and his wife and sons, one of whom is a known criminal as to why they had taken Aryan with them that night. Further, one of the direct eye witnesses to the crime, a woman close friend of the landlord who is suspected of having contacts with criminal gangs, was also present in the car. She deliberately gave wrong information to the police as to the people involved naming some rival gang members and not the real murderers— the gau rakshaks. The question raised by Aryans family is why would she deliberately mislead the police? Is it to protect the gau rakshaks or is it to use the murder to implicate a rival gang? Aryan was shot a second time. Was the murder pre- planned? These questions haunt the family. Either way, the question is why is the police not taking the people present in the car that night, for custodial interrogation?
2. The role of the police is extremely dubious. It is unthinkable that there should be a car chase on the national highway for 30 km and there is no intervention by the highway police? Is this such a familiar happening of gau rakshaks that there is no intervention? What is the use of CCTV cameras if there is no live display in police centres to warrant immediate intervention? That this happened just a stone throw from the Capital shows the total absence of law and order and the law of the mob. Who is accountable?
3. The family were told by the police that the man who shot their son is a “nek aadmi” — a good man— and that their son was shot “by mistake”. What is the message being given? That they should compromise with the “nek aadmi”? Further the main accused Anil Kaushik, the police certified “nek aadmi” is a member of the sarkar recognised gau rakshak district committee and has been in close touch with the police. The police took the father to the thana where these men had been kept. According to the father the killer of his son fell at his feet and begged forgiveness saying it was a mistake. Again is this not a form of pressure on the family? Why did the police take the father to the thana to meet the murderer? There is legitimate concern that the case will be manipulated and sabotaged to save the gaurakshaks. The demand is to immediately take action against the police for this blatant attempt to sabotage the case.
4. The murder is a direct result of the Haryana government’s policy of providing legal sanction to the criminal activities of the gau rakshaks. Also it is an open secret that the police are in total connivance with these gangs. The statements of the police denying any knowledge that the men arrested are part of the gaurakshak gangs is evidence of the bias. Can any independent and impartial inquiry take place? The government and police must be held accountable for this murder.
5. The politics of protection of gaurakshaks by the BJP-RSS eco system is fully exposed in this case. The family have been left completely alone. They are poor and without connections. Not a single BJP functionary, leave alone a leader has been to visit them. No government official has bothered to meet the family. The father stated— “I heard that when a relative of one Bajrangi died, the big leaders went and gave lakhs of rupees. Not a single one of them have come to see me, not even to offer condolences. Why? Because I have questioned who gave them a license to kill?” He was referring to the death due to burns of Mahesh the brother of Hindutva activist and gaurakshak leader Bittu Bajrangi in January this year. At the time, then Haryana Chief Minister Khattar accompanied by the Transport Minister and the local MLA had visited the family. Today if Aryan’s father and mother find themselves alone it is because of the toxic politics of the BJP-RSS eco system. When a young devout Hindu believer is shot dead by the Hindutva gaurakshaks, the eco- system stands with the latter. This is the reality of those who speak in the name of Hindus.
6. The CPI(M) demands financial compensation to the family, a government job for Ajay Mishra, the brother; action against the police for connivance in protecting the accused; a court monitored investigation. The CPI(M) demands the disbanding of these criminal gaurakshak gangs and an end to government recognition, sanction and protection.