As the police investigations continue after the Delhi riots during Donal Trump’s visit and the number of casualties steadily climb, more stories of horror and brutality are stumbling out day by day.
Adding to the stories of brutalities suffered by Hindus in the Delhi riots is the gruesome murder of Alok Tiwari, a worker in a cardboard factory.
On Wednesday 26th February 2020, after having his lunch, oblivious of the dangers outside, Alok had departed from his house. However, shortly afterwards, he was attacked by murderous rioters as he got hit by a stone. Alok Tiwari’s wife had got a call from his mobile phone in which the unknown man from the other side informed his wife about Alok’s injury.
After the phone call from a stranger informing the condition of her husband, Tiwari’s wife had rushed to the spot where she saw her husband profusely bleeding. She kept pleading the bystanders for help no one came to her aid. After an inordinate delay, when the ambulance did not turn up, a local businessman lent his bike to take her husband to the hospital. However, he was pronounced dead at the hospital.
Alok Tiwari used to work in a cardboard factory. He lost his life amidst the gruesome anti-Hindu riots unleashed in north-east Delhi. He was killed by the same murderous rioters that had targeted Hindus from the rooftop of the ’Rajdhani’ school owned by Faisal Farooq in Shiv Vihar. The roof of the school was armed with a slingshot from which stones, bricks were aimed at the Hindus. The Rajdhani school suffered minor damages in the riots, but a school adjacent to it, owned by a Hindu named Pankaj Sharma, was burnt to the ground by the violent Muslim mob.
Dinesh Kumar Khatik and Alok Tiwari are among the victims of the rioters who wreaked havoc from the Rajdhani school. Dinesh, belonging to the Dalit community, had gone out to get milk for his children, while Alok was strolling outside. Neither of them did anything to provoke the rioters, nor did they clash with them, but they were murdered nonetheless.
OpIndia team had reached the house of the deceased Alok Tiwari, where we had a conversation with his wife Kavita Tiwari, her mother and brother. Alok’s parents were not present in the house as they had left for their ancestral village in Kanpur right after the cremation rituals of their son. According to the locals we spoke to, Alok Tiwari’s parents could not muster the courage to come home from the cremation ground. The family was in throes of financial problems as they sought donations from the neighbours to perform Alok’s last rites.
We saw the aggrieved brother-in-law of slain Alok Tiwari busy filling the compensation forms while some policemen helped him. Alok’s wife, who was still reeling under the shock of her husband’s untimely and shocking departure was not in the position to have a conversation. However, on our insistence, she agreed to speak about the tragedy that befell her.
The deceased’s wife said that on February 26, Alok Tiwari went out for a walk after having lunch. When he did not return in time, she grew anxious about her husband. She told us that shortly thereafter, she received a call from her husband’s mobile phone but an unknown person was on the other side informing her about the unpleasant news of the attack by rioters on her husband.
His wife ruefully added that she advised Alok against taking a walk but her husband did not budge. When news of Alok being injured came in, his wife ran pillar to post, pleading for help from their neighbours but no one came forward. Some Hindus were taking care of the injured Alok Tiwari but he was required to be admitted to the hospital immediately. A local businessman then helped Alok Tiwari’s wife and offered them a ride to the hospital on his bike. Kavita Tiwari had to balance her severely injured husband behind a two-wheeler because no ambulance was available at that time, thanks to the riots.
Alok Tiwari’s wife told us that when she reached the spot where her husband was injured, she saw a large pool of blood surrounding her husband. Blood was gushing out profusely from his wound. Watching her husband’s deteriorating health, she instantly called an ambulance but they refused to come citing the tense situation in the neighbourhood. He was then brought home. The person on the bike was driving and Alok Tiwari’s wife was sitting behind. The injured Alok Tiwari was placed in the middle. After collecting the meagre 250 rupees that they had at home, his wife took her injured husband to the hospital.
Talking to OpIndia, widow Kavita Tiwari’s mother claimed that her daughter has suffered not just mentally but physically as well. She has been constantly losing her consciousness after her husband’s death. She had been ill for a long time and also had suffered injuries in the past after a cupboard had fallen on her head. Regardless of her injuries, Kavita not only rushed to help her dying husband but also went around the locality seeking financial assistance for them for her husband’s treatment.
Alok left behind two children, an 8-year-old daughter Sonakshi and her younger sibling, a 4-year-old boy, named Aarush. Aarush is still unaware of the dawning reality that his father is no more. Alok Tiwari’s mother-in-law said that if the Muslim rioters had come just a little further, they would have been at the entrance of their homes. Local women also confirmed that they were scared they will be raped if the mob comes any further.
The abject situation of Alok Tiwari’s house is such that they do not even have a photo of him in their house. She stated that her belongings were stolen, including her wedding album, at a station during a journey in the past. The only photograph of Alok they have is the one on the Aadhar card.
