Nagpur: A scuffle over a disputed love marriage snowballed into a full blown riot at Kamptee on Monday night, leading to the murder of the groom’s maternal uncle, and serious injuries to his maternal grandparents. Even as the riot unfolded half a kilometre away, New Kamptee police station personnel were busy downplaying repeated calls and complaints by the victim’s family that they were being attacked.
Two groups were at loggerheads over a love marriage at Anand Nagar in Ramgadh locality late on Monday evening. The subsequent riot by more than two dozen goons claimed the life of 42-year-old Iqbal Sheikh and left his senior citizen parents, Zarina Bi and her husband Shaikh Jameel, seriously injured.
The tension was triggered after Iqbal’s nephew Sayyed Irfan and a 19-year-old young woman of the same community eloped, and got married knot on March 13. The girl’s family refused to accept the marriage. A police officer is learnt to have tried to settle the matter amicably, without filing a complaint at the police station, following the intervention of a social worker. However, the matter could not be resolved, and was left simmering.
The dispute escalated after Irfan’s wife was forcibly taken away by her family four days ago. The young woman’s uncle, Jabbar Rehmu Khan, earlier booked for peddling narcotics, had been threatening Irfan, who was trying to convince his wife’s family to let her return to him. Jabbar is learnt to have masterminded the series of attacks on Monday night on Iqbal’s family, where Irfan had taken shelter along with his parents and siblings anticipating an attack at their own residence.
Before the fatal attack, the families had locked horns, and the Shaikh family had been at the receiving end. Iqbal, his father Jameel, and two other family members had been injured. An injured Jameel and others went to New Kamptee police station, while Iqbal and others had stayed back at home. Some of their rivals too landed up at the police station to report their side of the story.
As the cops were busy recording the statements of both sides, and also took a profusely bleeding Jameel to hospital, Jabbar and others stormed Iqbal’s residence with more armed accomplices for the second attack.
Iqbal’s relatives at the police station got the news on the phone, and started pleading with the cops to rush to their residence to control the armed rivals who were pelting stones, and threatening them with swords and other weapons. However, the cops took the complaints lightly, and only reached the spot after the raiding gang had stabbed Iqbal to death, and seriously injured his mother, as the cornered family tried to stave off the attack.
Irfan said Iqbal’s helpless family members kept on seeking police help through their relatives at the police station, but the cops did not react promptly. “We even made the cops hear the commotion and cries from our relatives as Jabbar and others attacked them. But the cops seemed to be in no hurry,” said a grieving Irfan.
Irfan’s mother Zarina Bi said no cops turned up when the attack was underway. “Police did nothing to save our son. After his death, they have stationed commandos and cops in such large numbers,” she lamented.
Senior PI Lalit Vartikar of New Kamptee police station admitted there was a delay in reaction, but that it was due to manpower shortage. “We have included names of 22 persons in the FIR along with some more accomplices. Nine, including Jabbar, have already been arrested,” he said. “We have already deployed Riot Control Police (RCP) and staffers from different police stations as a precautionary measure, to ensure there is no backlash,” he said.
