Behrampore: Victim Khabir Sheik who was lynched to death on false suspicions of theft and insanity is no more but has left behind his widow Aklima Biwi who is struggling to believe how her life has changed all of a sudden with her husband now gone forever leaving behind his two daughters, 12 and 7.
“I had been worrying all (Wednesday) afternoon because my husband did not return from a simple chore he had left for in the morning. Sometime around 5pm, my neighbour Selima called to tell me what she had seen in Behrampore,” Aklima (29) recalls.
The incident took place inside a clinic in Behrampore where victim Khabir was ruthlessly beaten to death on Wednesday by the staff employees who accused him of being an “intruder” and that he had attacked them with chairs, TT reports.
The next following day, clinic owner Asok Boral, 50, and employee Ranajit Biswas, 55 were arrested.
Victim Khabir was lynched to death even before the Bengal anti-lynching bill was passed last week.
His body was later brought to Sahazadpur on Wednesday evening and his last rites completed.
Victim khabir’s neighbours and relatives have called him an “earnest” man who was projected as an “insane perpetrator who broke into their clinic” by the staff members of the clinic.
“Khabir spent five years in Saudi Arabia as a labourer. He returned home this February and worked as a mason,” said another neighbour.
The widow and his daughters are left with despair now as they had no means of earning except what Khabir earned and brought home.
Their elder daughter studies at a local Madarsa while the younger one studies in a local primary school.
At the clinic in Behrampore on Thursday, preliminary investigations did not match the employees’ account of Khabir as an intruder.
“It is clear Khabir had come to Behrampore to buy some tools for a construction job he was performing in the village. We suspect that he came into the clinic because he was feeling unwell. Preliminary probe suggests a scuffle broke out between Khabir and clinic staff,” said a police officer.
The widow is in despair for losing her husband to false accusations of “theft and insanity”.
“Khabir had come home to eat around 9am (on Wednesday) and said he was going to Behrampore to buy some tools. He was happy and healthy,” said Aklima.
“Our probe suggests that after an initial scuffle, Khabir locked himself in a chamber for protection and agreed to open it when a traffic constable knocked on the doors. But it seems this constable was overpowered by some clinic staff who lynched Khabir before a larger police team could arrive,” the officer said.