Portraits of B R Ambedkar on the walls of Ankur Kumar’s home in Hasanpur Qadim. (Express photo)
HANGING ON the wall of a house in Meerut’s Hasanpur Qadim village, where 22-year-old Ankur Kumar used to sew track pants, are two portraits of bespectacled B R Ambedkar. “He is like our God,” said Pramod (36), Ankur’s neighbour, pointing to a third portrait of Ambedkar on the wall outside the room.
On Monday, Ankur, a Dalit, was wearing a blue T-shirt with Ambedkar’s photo on it, when he was allegedly shot in the stomach during the Bharat bandh called by the community. A video, purportedly recorded moments after Ankur was shot, shows him holding a stick as he collapses in a bloodied T-shirt and jeans. He later died in a hospital.
While police have claimed that a bullet fired by Kumar had ricocheted, killing him, the FIR lodged into his death alleged that some “savarna caste” men had made casteist slurs against Ankur and when he objected, he was shot in the stomach. The FIR, lodged on the basis of a complaint filed by Ankur’s elder brother Rinku (24), has been filed against unknown persons under Section 302 (murder) of the IPC and the SC and ST (Prevention of Atrocities) Act.
However, on Monday, Rinku had blamed the police for Ankur’s death. “I have come to know that he was shot in the stomach. Which law calls for immediately firing upon protesters? They (police) could have called a fire brigade (to fire water cannons),” he had said.
Like many others in Hasanpur Qadim, Ankur used to earn a living by sewing. “He was our strongest pillar. We depended on him. In a month, he used to make between Rs 5,000 to Rs 8,000,” said his father Sodan Singh.
Arjit (17) described his brother Ankur as a “silai master.” Along with Rinku (24) and their other brother Aditya (14), Arijit used to occasionally help Ankur in his work. The family doesn’t own any land.
The family alleged that Ankur was shot at around 2.30 pm near Kutchery, where the protesters had gathered. Ankur had allegedly left home earlier in the day to get raw materials, but his friend apparently dragged him to the protests, they claimed. Locals, who were at the protest site, told the family about the shooting, and how a couple of youths put Ankur on a two-wheeler and rushed him to a hospital in Meerut.
Arjit claimed that police prevented him, Rinku and Aditya from leaving the ICU. “Doctors had told us that there is nothing left in him. However, four of us were locked… about 45 minutes later, the police took away the body from the back door. When we were let off, we were told that he has been referred to AIIMS in Delhi,” he said.
The family said that only around 3.30 am on Tuesday, they were handed over the body in Meerut, where the last rites were performed. The office of Meerut District Magistrate Anil Dhingra said it has no knowledge whether any compensation would be provided to Ankur’s family.