Police arrested four people Saturday. (Express Photo by Gajendra Yadav)
Even as the Ministry of Home Affairs and Delhi Police maintained that the attack on four siblings from Kashmir at Siddhartha Extension on Thursday night was over the issue of feeding dogs, and had nothing to do with the state they come from, a letter sent by the president of the flat occupants’ association (FOA) to the Prime Minister’s Office on April 2 suggests otherwise.
The letter, marked to the Home Minister, the Lieutenant Governor and the Delhi Police chief, and signed by FOA president SN Pandey, states: “We have serious apprehensions that these persons are involved in certain illegal activities viz harbouring of terrorists. They have taken five flats on rent and residents have noticed movement of suspicious people in the colony at night. Since this whisper started spreading in the colony, the persons started feeding dogs under the garb of animal welfare; they do not allow residents to move in the colony at night.”
The siblings — a 40-year-old man from Srinagar who has been staying on rent in the colony for 10 years and his three sisters — were beaten up by stick-wielding residents, with the incident being recorded on a mobile phone. The man alleged the accused called them “Kashmiri terrorists”. On Saturday, police arrested four people, including Pandey.
In a tweet on Friday, former J&K Chief Minister Omar Abdullah had asked the Home Ministry and Rajnath Singh to “have this investigated urgently and bring the guilty to book”.
On Saturday, Delhi Police Commissioner Amulya Patnaik informed Union Home Secretary Rajiv Gauba that the incident had nothing to do with the “origin” of the siblings, an official said.
The MHA, in a statement, reiterated: “The incident has nothing to do with the origins of the family, which is from J&K. It was a local issue. The complainant is an avid dog lover and animal rights activist. There have been more than 50 complaints and counter-complaints against residents of Siddhartha Enclave and the complainant on the issue of feeding of stray dogs. A dispute over feeding of stray dogs took place on Thursday night.”
However, the April 2 letter by Pandey alleges the sole intention of the siblings was to “implicate residents in criminal cases and get their houses demolished”.
“Of late, these men have started indulging in molesting women of the colony who will be abducted to Kashmir and their families ruined. They claim they are Muslims and have been trained to destroy families of kafirs and make their lives hell. Residents have no other alternative but to unite and take action in self defence,” the letter read.
FOA secretary Varinder Singh confirmed that Pandey had first sent the letter to the SHO of Sunlight Colony police station when they noticed CCTVs had been put up in the colony, allegedly by the siblings. When no action was taken, they approached the PMO. Several current and former members of the FOA confirmed that the letter had been sent.
The siblings had earlier told the SHO that the allegations against them are “fabricated, concocted and false”. “They (FOA) are making this into an issue over dog menace, but this is racial profiling we have been subjected to for years,” said the brother of the 40-year-old who was assaulted. DCP (southeast), meanwhile, said an FIR has also been lodged against the siblings based on a complaint by the residents.