[Marxistindia] Brinda Karat's letter to Haryana CM

[news from the cpi(m)]

June 11, 2021
 
Press Release
 
CPI(M) Polit Bureau Member, Brinda Karat, had written the following letter
to the Chief Minister of Haryana after meeting the family of Asif who was
brutally killed.
 
The letter is being released for publication.
 
 
For CPI(M) Central Committee Office
 
***
Full Text of the Letter
 
Dear Shri Khattar ji,
 
I am writing to you following my visit on June 9 as part of a delegation of
the CPI(M) and CPI to village Khera Khalilpur, in Nuh. We went to meet the
family of  a young man Asif who was brutally killed on May 16. We also met
the DC Shri Shakti Singh and gave him a memorandum.
 
Members of the delegation were: Amarjit Kaur (CPI, Central Secretariat
member and AITUC General Secretary), Surinder Singh (Secretary, CPIM
Haryana), Dariyav Singh Kashyap (Secretary, CPI Haryana) Savita, Usha
Saroha, Major S.I.Prajapati, Vinod Bharadwaj, Sarafuddin Mewati, Jafar,
Arshad Khan among others.
 
I draw your attention to the following :
 
1. The brutal murder of Asif was by criminal elements in the village and
their cohorts mobilized by them from outside.  We were told that since Asif,
who reportedly helped people of all communities in the village,  opposed
their criminal activities, he was targeted by them. Apparently even before
the murder, there are several cases pending in the thana against some of
these criminals and their violent activities. Along with Asif, his cousin
Rashid was also brutally attacked and left for dead. He is the main eye
witness and was able to identify several of the attackers.
 
2. In the first instance the police had acted and arrested some of those
identified. 12 men were arrested. This gave confidence to the family.
 
3. However, on May 30 the situation changed. That day in violation of Sec
144 which had been imposed from a month earlier because of the Covid
pandemic, a so- called "Hindu mahapanchayat" was held in village Indri,
organised reportedly by the Karni Sena led by its President Suraj Pal Ammu.
It was attended by several thousand people. The slogan on the social media
poster for the event was "First save religion- castes will automatically be
saved" showing clearly the attempt to give a communal twist to the crime
committed. It was a meeting in which speaker after speaker made highly
provocative communal hate speeches inciting violence against the minority
community, justifying the murder and demanding release of the accused. It's
aim was to mobilise people on communal lines to save the accused, to
communalise the incident, to spread communal tension, to divide people -all
crimes under law.
 
4. One of the speakers was Naresh Kumar the main accused in the Junaid
murder and lynching case. He is out on bail in that case and went on stage
to make a toxic speech. Local leaders of the ruling party were also present
in the mahapanchayat. 
 
5. Instead of taking note of the communal content and intent of the
mahapanchayat the local BJP MLA has justified it as a right of people to
raise their demands. Naturally when an elected representative refuses to
condemn such a gathering, it causes insecurity among the minority community.
 
6. Within a few days of this mahapanchayat, four of the men arrested were
released. Clearly this was done as a direct result of the pressure and
demand of the "mahapanchayat". 
 
 
The question is how and why was the mahapanchayat allowed in the first place
in violation of Sec 144? Second, why is there not a single arrest of those
who made hate speeches? Third, why has the police not moved immediately to
cancel the bail of the murder accused Naresh Kumar and file a fresh case
against him? Fourth, why were the four accused discharged by the police in
spite of the identification directly by the eye witness? Fifth, when more
than two dozen men were involved in the murder why have they not been
arrested?
 
I hope you will take the necessary and appropriate action on the above
issues- namely arrest all the accused,  arrest the organizers of the
so-called Hindu mahapanchayat and those who made communal hate speeches,
move the court for cancellation of bail of Junaid case accused Naresh.
 
Asif was just 28 years old. He leaves behind his wife and three small
children, the youngest a baby of just a few months. This is also to request
you to extend compensation and financial assistance to the family.
 
Yours sincerely,
 
Sd/-
(Brinda Karat)
(Polit Bureau member, CPI(M) 
Former Rajya Sabha member)
 
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