Nayagaon villagers seek talks with Muslim family attacked by mob

Gurgaon: A group of residents from Nayagaon, where the men who allegedly attacked a Muslim family in Bhondsi’s Bhoop Singh nagar area hail from, met police commissioner on Tuesday and expressed their willingness to resolve the matter through dialogue. Residents claimed they were not against the family, and wanted to come up with a solution in a bid to maintain peace and harmony in the village.
Roshan Bhadana, counsel for the accused and also a resident of Nayagaon, who was part of the delegation, said several newspapers and television channels had reported that the Muslim family was planning to leave Gurgaon and even had threatened to commit suicide. “We don’t want such things to happen with anybody, and the villagers have no issue with them,” he said.

The country and the village, he added, belong to everyone. “Some incidents occurred owing to lack of communication between the two groups. This should not have happened in spur-of-the-moment. We cannot go back in time but can resolve this through dialogue as it has been happening in the village,” said Bhadana.

On March 21, the mob had attacked the two-storey house of Mohammad Dilshad (32), in which his uncle Mohammad Sajid lived with his wife and six children, allegedly after a dispute over a cricket match in Bhoop Singh Nagar.

An FIR was registered the same night at Bhondsi police station against unknown attackers under sections 147 (rioting), 148 (unlawful assembly), 452 (trespassing), 506 (criminal intimidation) and 307 (attempt to murder) of IPC.A cross-FIR was later filed against two members of the Muslim family based on the complaint of Rajkumar, a resident of Nayagaon and one of the accused. He had alleged the family members had hit him first, triggering the attack on the Muslim family.

Nayagaon, according to Bhadana, is around 1.5km from Bhoop Singh Nagar, and the villagers now “avoid going close to the area where the Muslim family lives” in a bid to avoid trouble. “Our 13 people have been sent to jail. We don’t want more names to be dragged into it,” he said.

Police spokesperson Subhash Boken said a delegation from Nayagaon met the police chief but had not submitted anything in writing. “Police are investigating the case. If villagers come up with an initiative to resolve the matter, police will support it,” he said.