Moradabad, UP: A 24-year-old mentally challenged youth, who was Rizwan for Muslims and Chaman for Hindus brought the two communities together when he died of illness on Wednesday in Moradabad. He was buried in a Hindu cremation ground, Gulab Bari, as per the Muslim rituals when a pandit recited Bhagwad Gita along with a maulana who recited verses of Quran.
As members of both the communities wanted to perform his last rites as per their rituals, they started having a fight for the dead body. Subsequently, the matter reached local police station and a solution was carried out, the circle officer of the area Sudesh Gupta said.
“The family of Ram Kishan Saini, a resident of Das Sarai locality claimed that Chaman was their son who went missing in 2009. They said that they found him roaming in the streets of Asalatpura area in 2014. During this time, Subhan Ali’s family in Asalatpura claimed they had been taking care of Chaman for the past five years and had even named him Rizwan,” Gupta was quoted as saying by TOI.
Moreover, both the families failed to provide any proof of guardianship as they did not have photographs. It was then decided by the police in 2014 that both families would be taking care of him, and they were made guardians. It was also decided that he would be living with each family for 15 days in a month.
“There were no restrictions on Rizwan. He moved freely. Some days he shared lunch with us and slept in the Hindu locality, on other days he ate there and slept here,” said Subhan Alam. At his house, Rizwan was like his younger brother, whom Subhan’s children called uncle.
At Saini’s house, he was Chaman. His claimed mother, Jwala would feed him and clean him when he was at her place. “It was a bit disturbing at first, but I was satisfied with how the Muslims treated him. Chaman was not fit to understand the divide between religion or houses so I decided to continue with this arrangement,” said Jwala.
“Both families have recently become like one large extended family. They share food and even celebrate their festivals together,” said the local councillor of the area.