Update: An investigation by Bihar DGP says that there is no communal angle in Rohit Jaiswal’s death. The victim’s father has changed his statements quite a few times. The father had alleged that his son was sacrificed to make the mosque powerful by Muslims, which police investigation has found untrue. Eventually, father has also disowned the allegations.

In a horrific incident, a minor Hindu boy, a resident of Bela Dih village of Kateya in Gopalganj, Bihar, was allegedly killed and had his body thrown into a nearby river. The family of the boy have claimed that when they reached the police station with a complaint, they were brutally beaten up by the police. The conditions became so hostile that the family was compelled to leave the village and relocate to somewhere in Uttar Pradesh.

Due to the safety of the victim’s family, the information about their latest location cannot be revealed.

As per the family’s claims, in what transpired on March 28, 2020, few boys living nearby came to Rajesh Jaiswal’s house and took his minor child with them at the pretext of playing cricket. Rajesh Jaiswal belongs to a poor OBC family and used to sell pakoras in the village for a living.

OpIndia gets in touch with the minor Hindu boy’s father

When OpIndia got in touch with Rajesh, he confirmed that the neighbours who took his 15-year-old son, Rohit, with them, who were all Muslims. Rohit was first taken to the mosque, where he was ‘sacrificed’, claimed Rajesh while speaking to OpIndia. A new mosque had been built in the village and it is being alleged that there was a belief that if a Hindu was ‘sacrificed’, the mosque would become powerful and its influence would increase. This is the reason his son was taken to the mosque secretly, family says.

The guardians of those Muslim children, who were sent to call Rohit, were waiting for all the children in that new mosque. When they reached there along with Rohit, he was captured and allegedly strangulated to death, family alleges. There are allegations that six people were involved in the heinous act.

Minor Hindu boy’s sister alleges police took bribe from accused

In a video shared on social media, Rohit’s sister can be seen crying and pleading for help. She is heard saying that her brother was killed and dumped in the river nearby. She alleges that the police had taken a bribe from the accused, hence they were not taking any action against the killers.

OpIndia approached Gopalganj police for statement

Opindia spoke to Gopalganj SP Manoj Kumar Tiwari who informed that action has been taken in the matter and an FIR has also been registered. He refused to respond to the allegations of the victim’s family and said that only the SDPO would be able to say anything in this regard as the investigation of the case has been entrusted on him. However, when OpIndia tried to contact the Hathua SDPO he refused to say anything in this regard saying that he was busy.

Victim’s father Rajesh said that when he went to the police for the first time with his complaint, the Station President Ashwani Tiwari was reluctant to write the FIR. He even offered to arrange a compensation of Rs 8 lakh from the government and coaxed Rajesh not to lodge an FIR. Rajesh alleges that the police also made the postmortem report according to their whims. The dead body of the child was taken inside the post mortem room for barely 2-3 minutes and postmortem was completed alleged Rajesh, raising serious questions on the callousness and apathy of the police in handling the case.

Rajesh confirmed to OpIndia, that a heavy object was tied to the dead body of Rohit to make sure that the body gets fully drowned and does not reappear once it’s dumped in the river. Despite the police being aware of the entire incident, they allegedly kept telling Rajesh that only if he accepts that the death of the child was due to an accident, will he will get the compensation money.

Rajesh said he cried and said that he only needs justice, but Rajesh, somehow, felt that seeing the current scenario, he feels that his family will never get justice.

He confirmed that many media outlets have approached him and spoken to him but none dared to report the incident since Muslims were involved.

Minor Hindu boy’s father says they were abused and assaulted by police

Rajesh told OpIndia that he and his wife kept going back to the police station hoping to get justice, but every time they went there they were abused and humiliated and sent back.

Rajesh alleged that after they approached the police and filed an FIR against the accused, they started receiving threats. Siddha Ansari and Raza Ansari were threatening Rajesh to withdraw the case. When Rajesh approached police inspector Tiwari and informed him about the threats he and his family were receiving, Tiwari advised him to leave the village and settle elsewhere.

Talking to Opindia, Rajesh’s wife confirmed that when they approached the police requesting them to take action against the people who were threatening his family, the police had beaten her and her husband up mercilessly. They twisted his arm and kicked him pinning him to the floor down.

The police is constantly trying to suppress this incident, claimed Rajesh. Fed up with the atrocities of the police and the Muslims in the village, Rajesh and his family decided to leave the village and went an settled in Uttar Pradesh.

Rajesh’s family said that they do not want money, do not want any compensation from the government – just want justice. His son was killed in the mosque and thrown into the river and he is being forced to accept compensation for withdrawing the FIR, this he said was extremely dreadful.

The father desperate to get justice said helplessly while speaking to OpIndia that so far no local leader has also extended a hand to help to his family. The village head and the senior police officer are relatives, due to which the sarpanch is not supporting them, alleged Rajesh. He feared that they could be harmed as the accused will now seek revenge from them.

Update: An investigation by Bihar DGP says that there is no communal angle in Rohit Jaiswal’s death. The victim’s father has changed his statements quite a few times. The father had alleged that his son was sacrificed to make the mosque powerful by Muslims, which police investigation has found untrue. Eventually, father has also disowned the allegations.