MUZAFFARNAGAR: A prime witness in the 2013 Muzaffarnagar riots was found dead under mysterious circumstances on Monday.
According to media reports, the body Sodan Singh was found on Sunday evening, hanging from a hook near a tubewell near his house in the district’s Sikheda village.
Police suspect it to be the case of suicide but Sodan’s son Ravinder alleged his 58-year-old father was murdered.
The matter was being investigated as police registered a case against four accused. The post-mortem report stated that the death occurred due to ante-mortem hanging.
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According to the police, Singh was the key witness in the murders of Jat cousins Sachin and Gaurav at Kawal village in August 2013.
Singh was also named in a sexual harassment case for allegedly molesting a 10-year-old girl around 20 days ago and also an accused in connection with an alleged attack on a Muslim man.
“Singh was a witness of the prosecution and his testimony had been recorded. He was not an accused in the riots case, but other cases were pending against him,” Muzaffarnagar SSP Sudhir Kumar Singh was quoted Indian Express as saying.
The large-scale riots in Muzaffarnagar and adjoining areas in August and September 2013 claimed at least 60 lives and displaced over 50,000 people. The riot survivors have been forced to live in a vicious cycle of poverty and discrimination.