We Don’t Have Much Hope for Justice: Faizan’s Family on Delhi Police Identifying Guilty Cops
August 21, 2021
Kismatun, 60, the bereaved mother of Faizan says that his son died due to the Delhi Police’s ”irresponsibility”. — Photos by Alish Uddin.
They took one-and-a-half-years to identify the culprits despite being policemen from their own department and despite video evidence, says brother of the Delhi riots victim
Ahmed Kasim | Clarion India
NEW DELHI – This week, reports emerged that Delhi Police have identified three policemen accused of forcing a group of injured Muslim men to sing national anthem instead of taking them to doctors during communal riots in northeast Delhi. A video of the incident had gone viral on social media sparking outrage and accusations of bias against police.
The police took one-and-half-years to find the cops behind the assault and coercive action against the injured Muslim men, one of whom died a day after he was released from police custody on February 26, 2020. He was identified as 23-year-old Faizan, a resident of the Kardampuri locality
But the family of Faizan says they don’t have any hopes of justice. “They took one-and-a-half-years to identify the culprits despite being policemen from their own department and despite video evidence. Now this case will again be sidelined and no one will be arrested,” his brother Mohd Nadeem told Clarion India on Thursday.
The Indian Express reported on Thursday, August 19, that three accused policemen are likely to be subjected to lie-detector test though none of them has yet been arrested.
The inordinate time that the investigators took to identify the erring policemen is being explained by the fact that the spot where the assault and coercive act took place is surrounded by three to four police stations thus it made it difficult to know which policemen were involved.
In March this year, Delhi Police had informed the court that the cameras of the police station were not working when Faizan was kept in detention there due to “a ‘technical fault’.
The Indian Express report said 100 policemen were interviewed by the special investigation unit of the Crime Branch besides scanning duty charts of the day that incident took place. “Almost after 17 months, police have zeroed in on three policemen, and senior officers have been informed. A lie-detector test will be conducted on them after taking their consent,” the newspaper quoted a senior officer as saying.
“We don’t have much faith in the police,” Nadeem says. “This cycle will continue like this.”
The family had also filed a plea seeking probe by a special investigation team (SIT) as the crime branch was taking time to probe the matter. “It was only after SIT took over the probe that the policemen who beat up my brother were identified ,” Nadeem adds.
Faizan’s mother Kismatun, 60, says that he died due to the Delhi Police’s ”irresponsibility”, They did not provide treatment after the beating and that killed him,” she says as she recounts that fateful day.
Faizan had gone out to look for her mother who was at the protest site. But the police caught him and took him away. When he did not return home till late night Kismatun started searching him in hospitals and police stations.
“I went to Jyoti Nagar Police station, where I showed the cops his photo and Aadhar card. The police agreed and said that “yes he is here”,” she recalls. Despite the long wait and repeated request she was not allowed to see his son and asked to return in the morning.
Kismatun alleges that if the police had taken him to the hospital at the right time, he would not have died. “The police did not release him because the police had beaten him up badly with sticks and his chances of survival were slim,” she alleges.
Next morning, she says, she got a call from the police telling her that Faizan’s condition was “very bad”.
The family went to the police station and brought him home. “His whole body was swollen. There were marks of sticks on the body,” she recalls.
They took him to a private clinic but the doctors initially refused to admit him arguing that “it was a police case.”
But when his condition worsened they started the treatment. By then there was no hope of any recovery. “He died soon after” she recounts.
Nadeem, his brother, said that they have not moved on from the shock. “He was hit so badly that it was hard to see his wounds. We just want them to be punished.”
The tragedy has hit the family hard. His brother has hardly done any business and finds it difficult to make the ends meet.
Kismatun used to do tailoring work from her home but she has also stopped. “I am not able to work now,” she says.
