Elderly man’s Aadhaar sought to prove identity

INDORE/BHOPAL: A purported video clip of an elderly person being assaulted in MP’s Neemuch shows a scared and disoriented man, Bhanwarlal Jain, being accosted by the suspect and asked to show his Aadhaar to prove his identity. When Bhanwarlal struggles to respond, he is seen being assaulted repeatedly.
Bhanwarlal’s body was found in a desolate part of Manasa five days after his family reported him missing. The primary postmortem report suggested he died of complications caused by dehydration, Neemuch SP Suraj Verma said.
Bhanwarlal’s family identified him as the man in the video, which started doing the rounds of social media on Friday, just after they cremated him. They immediately reported this to the police, demanding that the man seen slapping him in the video be identified and arrested.
State home minister Narottam Mishra told reporters on Saturday that Bhanwarlal got lost and couldn’t identify himself because of his mental condition. “The suspect has been identified and charged. We are in talks with the family. They are satisfied”. Mishra said later that the incident should not be perceived in a certain way. “Like the family has said, the deceased was mentally challenged. That is why the confusion arose.”
SP Verma told TOI that investigators believed “the sequence of events after the slapping incident seen on video led to Bhanwarlal’s death”.
Congress lashed out at the BJP government over law and order in MP. Former CM Kamal Nath tweeted, “What is happening in Madhya Pradesh? Tribals were lynched in Seoni, then there were incidents in Guna, Mhow, Mandla, and now an elderly person whose name is said to be Bhanwarlal Jain.”
Congress’s Digvijaya Singh pointed out Kushwaha’s BJP connection and said it remained to be seen if the police would go after him. “First Dalit, then Muslims and tribals and now Jains. This fire of hatred has been ignited by BJP. Will the home minister say something?” state PCC working president Jitu Patwari tweeted.