Kanpur: 30-year-old, Mohammad Raees who was injured and later died in police firing, was brought to the home in Kanpur’s Begumpurwa area on a vegetable cart by a group of children from the neighbourhood.
His mother Kismattun Nisa says, “He (Mohammad Raees) bled all night. We tied a shirt around the wound. He kept telling us that the police shot him. He was shot in the stomach.”
Mohammad Raees son of Mohammad Shareef succumbed to injuries on Sunday and was laid to rest on Monday in a nearby graveyard.
According to his parents, he was taken to a hospital in a private vehicle the next day only. They said they did not take Raees to the hospital immediately after he was brought home as they were terrified. People told them that if they take their son to the hospital, police will lodge cases against other members of the family for rioting.
His 61-year-old father still works as a daily wage labourer, while Raees used to sell papads.
Recalling the tragedy, the family told that Raees had gone for Friday prayers at Eidgah mosque, which became the centre of the protest against the new citizenship law in Kanpur. He is one of the three persons who succumbed to injuries in the protest at Eidgah mosque.
His father told that Raees was his only son who would take care of his parents by giving them whatever money he could make, though Shareef is a father of seven — four sons and three daughters.
However, police said that Raees died as he had Hepatitis B, the claim which Raees parents deny. They even denied having any knowledge of Raees being Hepatitis B-positive.
There are several damaged cars outside the Eidgah mosque. Several women residents of the area have accused police of beating them.
35-year-old, Ghazala Sabiha Hashmi, a student of law at Shaheed Bhagat Singh Law in Kanpur, was pulled from her house by policemen and taken outside to a spot outside the Eidgah mosque where they assaulted here. “I have some injuries which you can see,” Hashmi said as she showed her injury marks on her hands and knees. Indian Express reported.
She added that many women, who were beaten up by police that day, would not speak up “because they are scared”.
Another woman, who wished to remain anonymous, said that she was assaulted. “All the men were taken away and locked up at police stations… A few of them are still in custody”, she said.
However SSP (Kanpur) Anant Deo refuted the allegations saying, “If women were beaten up, they can complain to me, the DM or any official… I have not received any such complaint till now.”