Nuh, Haryana: Around 8 pm in Nalhar village in southern Haryana’s Nuh district, Umar Din’s house was silent, the only sound coming from a ceiling fan mounted on a bamboo shaft along the thatched roof. 

The gloom in the household was still fresh though a year had passed since Haryana police arrested construction worker Umar Din’s younger brother Waseem Akram, 22.  

On 14 October 2023, more than two months after communal riots in the town of Nuh during a religious procession left six dead including two homeguards, an imam (a preacher) at a Gurugram mosque and a Bajrang Dal man in the procession, Akram was arrested. A couple of months later, he was charged under the Unlawful Activities Prevention Act (UAPA) 1967, India’s anti-terror law.

Akram, an undergraduate student, was accused of involvement in the murder of Bajrang Dal member Abhishek Chauhan. Specifically, he was alleged to have attacked Chauhan with an axe-like weapon on his neck, a charge based on an account given by an eyewitness. 

Umar Din’s home in Nalhar fell within the vicinity of two separate areas wracked by unrest during the July 2023 violence. The Nalhar Mahadev temple is about 300 m away. It was one of the points where on 31 July 2023 the Hindu procession, ‘Brij Mandal Jalabhishek Yatra’, stopped. There was stone-throwing and gunfire. 

Khedla Mor, another spot that saw communal violence, is 2 km away.  

As many as 60 first information reports (FIRs) were filed across seven police stations in Nuh, including 45 against known or unknown Muslims including minors. 

In January 2024, six months after the riots, the Haryana police invoked provisions of the UAPA in four FIRs. Section 10 of UAPA (being a member of an unlawful association) and section 11 (funding an unlawful association) were added to these four FIRs. 

FIR number 401, in which Akram was a co-accused, was registered at the Sadar Nuh police station based on a complaint of the dead Bajrang Dal worker Abhishek Chauhan’s cousin. Chauhan died from a bullet injury. 

More than a year since the violence, 10 Muslim men accused of killing Chauhan continue to be in jail. Article 14 accessed the chargesheet related to FIR No 401, including a supplementary chargesheet submitted after UAPA was invoked. In September 2024, we also met families of some of the accused in FIR No 401 who remain incarcerated.  

Over the course of an investigation spanning two months, following extensive interviews with local residents in Nuh, lawyers, legal experts, autopsy specialists and Hindu eyewitnesses, we found:

- Contradictions in statements given by Hindu eyewitnesses. Most of them were members of the Bajrang Dal

- Multiple identical testimonies by Hindu eyewitnesses, suggesting that these may have been tutored statements

- Identical confessional statements by Muslim accused, appearing to have been copy-pasted

- A mention of international terror group Al Qaeda in the supplementary chargesheet, with no corroborative evidence

- A post-mortem report contradicting police conclusions

According to a July 2024 report by civil rights advocacy group People’s Union For Democratic Rights (PUDR), in 81 of 89 cases (or 91%) where the court had passed detailed bail orders, the court noted “lack of any independent or corroborating evidence for arrest”. The PUDR report was based on an analysis of 100 bail orders in cases related to the Nuh violence of July 2023.

This is the latest in a series of cases (see here, here and here) related to incidents of communal violence where Muslim men have suffered long incarceration despite insubstantial evidence, with investigative biases emerging in court.

Mayur Suresh, a senior lecturer at the SOAS University of London, has commented on the link between the rise in Hindu nationalism and UAPA cases in India. 

“While there may be continuity when compared to the erstwhile UPA government, use of UAPA is distinct now,” Suresh said in a 2023 interview.

Suresh’s 2023 book, Terror Trials: Life and Law in Delhi’s Courts’, noted investigative anomalies that made their way into such cases, on account of the way documentation is handled by police, to tilt the scales in favour of State agencies. 

Article 14 tried to contact Nuh’s superintendent of police (SP) Vijay Pratap Singh, but received no response. We spoke to the additional SP of Nuh, Sonakshi Singh, who refused to comment, as she had only recently been transferred to Nuh.  A questionnaire was also emailed to the official email IDs of the SP, additional SP and deputy SP, but there was no response at the time of writing this report.

Run-Up To The Violence

The Braj Mandal Jal Abhishek Yatra or procession was started as an annual event by the Vishwa Hindu Parishad (VHP), a right-wing Hindu organisation, in 2020.  

On 30 July 2023, a day before the procession, a video showed Mohit Yadav also known as Monu Manesar, a self-proclaimed cow vigilante and Bajrang Dal activist, exhorting people to participate in the religious procession in large numbers and visit as many temples as possible in the region. 

Manesar is also an accused in the murder of two Muslim men, Nasir and Junaid, whose charred bodies were recovered from Haryana’s Bhiwani district in February 2023. 

Another cow vigilante, Bittu Bajrangi, took to social media ahead of the 2023 Jal Abhishek Yatra to announce on video that he was “visiting the in-laws” and that “they should welcome their jija (brother-in-law)”, a sexist and derogatory comment directed at Muslims. 

The religious procession entered Nuh, which is 79% Muslim, in this communally restive atmosphere. The procession  faced “direct violence from the Muslim side” according to one report. 

Videos of Bajrang Dal members brandishing guns and swords also surfaced online. 

The Case Against Waseem Akram

In a 250-page chargesheet filed on 24 October 2023, 10 days after Waseem Akram was arrested, the Haryana police charged him and 30 others under provisions of the Indian Penal Code including sections 302 (murder), 307 (attempt to murder), 148 (rioting, armed with deadly weapon), 149 (unlawful assembly) and 324 (voluntarily causing hurt by dangerous weapons or means), along with various sections of the Arms Act, 1959. 

Police sub-inspector Sanjeev Kumar was quoted in the chargesheet as saying that on 15 October 2023, Akram aided police in the recovery of a chatiya from a field near his hut. 

A chatiya is a small axe used to cut branches of trees. The chatiya, according to police investigators, was used in the killing of Abhishek Chauhan. 

In a statement and complaint given by Chauhan’s cousin Mahesh Singh, recorded on 1 August 2023 at the Sadar Nuh police station, he and Chauhan had come from Panipat to participate in the procession. Around 5:30 pm, a mob of 800 to 900 people “who were chanting Allahu Akbar (God is the Greatest)” approached the Nalhar temple. 

“... as part of a well-hatched plan, they began stone-pelting and soon resorted to firing upon us,” Mahesh Singh said in his statement, recorded in Hindi.  

This claim contradicted other accounts, such as this news report quoting the temple priest, that the Muslim mob had not attacked the temple, though “shots were fired towards the public on the road leading to the temple”.

Mahesh Singh’s complaint listed 13 Muslim men, by their names, allegedly involved in the attack on devotees in the temple premises, and one unidentified man. 

“It was in the midst of this chaos that a bullet hit my brother and he collapsed immediately,” according to Singh’s complaint. “One dark-complexioned man, whom I can identify if presented before me, attacked my brother on his neck with a sword.” 

Mahesh Singh’s complaint was converted into FIR number 401. 

However, his account was tweaked later the same day  when police recorded his statement formally under section 161 of the Code of Criminal Procedure (CrPC), 1973, replaced in 2023 by the Bharatiya Nagarik Suraksha Sanhita. 

While much of the statement followed the account given in the original complaint, towards the end, Singh’s statement read: “It was in the midst of this chaos that a bullet hit my brother and he collapsed immediately. One dark-complexioned man who had a sword in his hand and another young man who had an axe-like weapon in his hand attacked my brother on parts of the body and neck respectively.” According to the statement, Chauhan was attacked with a kulhadi (axe) on his neck and a sword had been used to inflict wounds on other parts of the body. 

“I have now come to know that the man who shot at my brother was Zakir and the man who attacked my brother with an axe on his neck was Wassi (alias Waseem) s/o Mauj Khan and resident of Nalhar,” Singh’s statement read.  

Statements under section 161 of the CrPC are usually recorded in police custody, used by the investigating agency to build a case. Statements obtained from the accused or witnesses under this section of the CrPC have to be corroborated before the court at the trial stage.

Speaking to Article 14, Akram’s lawyer Ramzan Chaudhary said it was surprising that Singh recollected so many names. “It means you’ve been tutored by someone.”

Akram’s family members contested the claim of recovery of a weapon used in the attack. Speaking to Article 14, Shahun, Akram’s cousin, said that in a household like theirs that reared goats and tends to trees in fields nearby, a chatiya is a common farm implement. 

Shahun added, “The recovery was not done from our house but has been mentioned in the chargesheet.” 

Akram, a Bachelor of Arts student at the Yasin Meo college in Nuh, returned home between 1:30 pm and 2 pm, according to his family.

Complainant Contradicts Statement To Police

Speaking to Article 14, the chief complainant in the case, Mahesh Singh, confirmed that he was able to give the exact names of the perpetrators to the police. 

According to Singh’s statement to the police, a local named Zakir fired the bullet that hit Chauhan. To Article 14, Singh said over a phone call, “It was such a big crowd that we couldn’t understand who exactly had fired the shot at Abhishek, so we couldn’t identify that person.”  

On how he had identified some of the attackers by name, he said that after Chauhan was hit by a bullet, he was holding him in his arms while the attackers spoke among themselves, using names. “Whatever names I could recall, I gave them to the police.” 

Asked how in the midst of the riot during which he, too, sustained injuries after being hit with bamboo sticks, he managed to register and remember the names of the assailants, he appeared to contradict his statement to police. He told Article 14: “After he (Chauhan) was hit by a bullet, I ran inside the temple. A lot of them in the crowd had axes. I didn’t see what happened afterwards since they had begun hitting me with lathi-danda.”

More Inconsistencies

Apart from Mahesh Singh’s statement, little else tied Akram to the scene of the riot, 

In nine identical statements by other Hindu participants in the Jal Abhishek Yatra, who also reportedly witnessed Chauhan’s  murder, Akram’s name did not come up. These nine statements were by a mahant (priest) and others, all residents of Panipat who had travelled to participate in the religious procession. 

Their statements, recorded under Section 161 of the CrPC, shared some common elements:

1. They all said that on 31 July 2023, they had reached a little beyond the Nalhar T-point when members of the Muslim community began targeting the procession with stone-pelting and gunfire.

2. One person in the mob fired at Chauhan with a bullet hitting him on the chest. Then a person who was dark-complexioned and had a sword in his hand, and another man who had an axe-like weapon further attacked Chauhan.

3. The attackers numbered around 800 to 900 and were chanting ‘Allahu Akbar’.

4. The attackers were calling one another by name, which revealed their Muslim identities.

Among these nine participants in the Jal Abhishek Yatra quoted in the chargesheet, Article 14 spoke with Bobby Bajrangi, district president of the Bajrang Dal in Panipat. “When Abhishek was hit by a bullet, he collapsed immediately. What they (Muslims) did to his body, nobody knows,” said Bajrangi, over a phone call. 

Like Singh, contradicting his own statement to the police, Bajrangi added that the post-mortem report had revealed that Chauhan had been attacked on the neck with a chakoo (knife) and that there were injuries on his face from the  stone-pelting.

Post-Mortem: No Axe Injury 

A contradiction in the statements of Hindu eyewitnesses emerges from the post-mortem report of Abhishek prepared by doctors at Nuh’s Shaheed Hasan Khan Mewati government medical college. 

On 31 July 2023, Chauhan was “declared brought dead” at the Shaheed Hasan Khan Mewati government medical college in Nuh. The post-mortem report noted 11 external injuries. The cause of death  was stated as “firearm injury and its complications”.

Seven of the external injuries were lacerated wounds (or injuries where the skin is torn or cut), and there were two contusions (or bruises), one abrasion and a firearm injury. None of the injuries were incised wounds, suggestive of use of a sharp-edged weapon such as a chatiya or a sword.  

The post-mortem report said about the condition of the neck that “no abnormality” was detected. Similarly no abnormality was detected in the thyroid, larynx and trachea. 

The statements alleging that Chauhan was attacked by two persons with a sword and an axe were also not borne out by statements given by family members summoned to identify the body. These statements are part of the inquest report dated 1 August 2023. 

Rajesh Singh, Chauhan’s uncle, said men “from one community had fired upon and beaten my nephew with lathi-danda (bamboo sticks) resulting in his death”. 

Chauhan’s cousin Yogesh gave a similar account, saying his wounds had been  “inflicted by lathi-danda”. 

Article 14 reached out to a doctor who is an expert on autopsies to seek an independent opinion on how its findings were best interpreted. Speaking anonymously, the expert said it was clear from the post-mortem report that  the main cause of death was the firearm injury. 

“Other injuries may have contributed to the death of the victim,” said the doctor.

About whether an axe or sword may have inflicted some wounds on the body,  the expert said that had a sharp weapon had been used, it would be mentioned in the report. 

Asked what the lacerations may have been from, the expert said, “If there is  a rupture of the skin owing to beating by lathi-danda, that would be a lacerated wound.”

On how injuries caused by a sharp weapon are normally recorded during the course of a post mortem, the doctor said incised wounds would have sharper margins, and deep wounds would be classified as stab wounds. “Injuries caused by an axe would be classified as chop wounds,” said the doctor. 

Lawyer Areeb Uddin Ahmed who practises at the Allahabad high court, pointed to the “discrepancy between medical findings and the allegations”.

He said the absence of any neck-related injuries in the post-mortem report calls into question the reliability of the testimony and the alleged recovery of the weapon.

“If the cause of death is conclusively a ‘firearm injury and its complications’,  then arresting individuals for using weapons such as stones and axes may point to overreach or misdirection in the investigation,” Ahmed said. 

3 from Family Implicated

In Nuh city’s ward number 7, 60-year-old Noor Jahan seemed exhausted as she recalled the events of the day in July 2023 when her world was turned upside down. 

The family has narrated their account repeatedly over the past years, to reporters, family, investigators and others. Having to repeat it all over again drained them of energy and hope.

Noor Jahan’s two sons, Junaid and Aadil, and her son-in-law Inaam, she said,  have been labelled accused numbers. 1, 4 and 19 respectively by the Haryana police in the murder case of Bajrang Dal worker Abhishek Chauhan. “Bilkul najayaz mera baccha pakad rakha hai (They’ve arrested my child on completely unlawful grounds)”, said Noor Jahan. 

While 21-year-old Junaid was preparing for the NEET exam, his younger brother Aadil, 18, was studying for an engineering entrance exam. 

On 31 July 2023, between 1:30 pm and 2 pm, according to Noor Jahan, after hearing about the violence, Junaid and Inaam stepped out to close their khokha, a small shop that sells bottled water, cold drinks, etc, and a small eatery owned by the family. They returned home and then set out for another trip the next day, to their village in Punhana, 25 km away, along with Aadil. 

“I had requested my sons with folded hands to go somewhere safe,” said Noor Jahan. The three were arrested by the police near Khedla Mor. 

They were implicated in the case on the basis of a complaint by Chauhan’s cousin. 

In his complaint dated 1 August 2023, Mahesh Singh wrote: “Among 8-10 men who were calling each other by names such as Aadil, Junaid, Arshad, Azharuddin, Inaam, etc, four of them, including Junaid, Altaf, Aameen and Inaam, were firing gunshots at us from the temple premises.”

In a statement recorded on 1 August 2023, a constable identified as Israel posted at the Sadar Nuh police station said that based on information received from a mukhbir (informant) and identification by a witness, Junaid, Inaam and others were arrested from Nuh’s vegetable market area. 

According to the chargesheet, in another statement dated 2 August 2023 recorded by a head constable identified as Kamal,  Aadil and others were arrested from Nuh’s ward number 1, also based on information from an informant.  

On mukhbirs’ tip-offs leading to arrests, advocate Tahir Hussain Ruparya, who is representing Aadil, Junaid and Inaam, said, “This is entirely the police’s theory.  Whoever was found in the vicinity was nabbed by the police, they were asked their names and then their arrests were shown from some other place.”

Ruparya said the complainant in the case had given the same names. There was no video evidence or mobile location details placing the accused at the scene of the rioting.  

Motive: ‘Hatred Against Hindu Community’

With 22 confessional statements by accused Muslim men recorded under section 161 of the CrPC, the police contended in the chargesheet that the attack was a conspiracy stemming from  “hatred against those from the Hindu community”.

Noor Jahan denied the insinuation of long-standing communal tensions. “We have always lived in harmony,” she said. “In fact, women from the Hindu community flocked to our house in dozens asking about the well-being of my sons after hearing about their arrest.”

Article 14 found identical language in the confessional statements of several of the accused, including Junaid, Aadil and Inaam.

1) Identical phrases: Almost all the 22 statements by the accused begin with the lines, in Hindi: “I belong to the Muslim community and believe in Allah. Those belonging to my community hate Hindus. We had gathered in thousands and were headed towards the Nalhar temple, where people were chanting Jai Shri Ram slogans, in order to condemn those belonging to the Hindu community.”

2) The accounts of the timelines suggested a well-planned conspiracy: “About 500 metres away from the Nalhar temple, several persons from amongst us began firing and pelting stones. We were told to fire gunshots directly and so we began firing accordingly.” All 22 accused reportedly made this statement.

3) Admission regarding Chauhan’s murder: Most of the confessional statements ended with an admission related to pelting stones on the Bajrang Dal activist. “The man who had been hit with a bullet, I too hurt him further by pelting stones. After that we proceeded towards the temple where many vehicles were parked and set them on fire.” This statement is repeated in 12 of the 22 statements by the accused, including Junaid and Inaam.

Nine others, including Aadil, admitted hitting Chauhan with a bamboo stick while one said he used a farsa (another axe-like weapon). 

“They (police) can get anything in writing while in custody,” said Ruparya, about the confessional statements. In the case of MLA Mamman Khan, FIR number 149, lawyers approached the lower court requesting that statements be recorded before a magistrate under section 164 of the CrPC

In this case, Ruparya didn’t submit such an application. “We had no such apprehension”, he said.

Supplementary Chargesheet

On 20 January 2024, the Haryana police submitted a supplementary chargesheet invoking sections of UAPA in FIR number 401. 

According to the supplementary chargesheet, additional statements under section 161 of the CrPC were recorded on 12 January 2024 by witnesses Mahant Ravindra Puri, Karan and Bobby. These men were said to be participants of the Jal Abhishek Yatra as well as eyewitnesses whose statements had been already recorded in 2023. 

Attributing new findings to a sub-inspector named Subhash who had recorded these statements, the supplementary chargesheet noted, in Hindi, that “on the basis of these statements it has been found that rioters had links with the terrorist group Al Qaeda and this terror group had also distributed money among rioters.” The supplementary chargesheet concluded that this merited invoking sections 10 and 11 of the UAPA.

These witnesses’ first statements to the police, in 2023, made no mention of Al Qaeda and/or its link to the Nuh violence.

Yousuf, another cousin of Akram, vehemently denied the allegations. “If this was indeed true, then why hasn’t anything related to bank statements been mentioned in the chargesheet?”

Article 14 contacted Mahant Ravindra Puri, one of the Hindu eyewitnesses named in the chargesheet as having given investigators a statement regarding the purported role of Al Qaeda, but Puri declined to speak on the matter.  

The PUDR fact-finding report also touched upon the UAPA sections regarding links with a terror group. “Both the UAPA sections invoked can only be applied if an “unlawful” association, declared under section 3 of the UAPA, is involved,” it said. 

It added that the website of the union ministry of home affairs shows a document uploaded as recently as 11 July 2024 naming 22 “unlawful” associations” under section 3 of the UAPA. “There is no reported or publicly available information on alleged links between any such “unlawful” association and the Nuh region,” the report added. 

Chaudhary, the advocate, said the FIRs and statements in the case followed a certain stereotype. “The day this case is heard on merit, most of the allegations will fall flat,” he said. 

Shahun, Akram’s cousin, said the latter’s father Mauj Khan often wakes up in the night, weeping. “...an Imam was also killed in a masjid, UAPA should have been invoked in that case as well,” he said.  

(Akanksha Kumar is a Delhi-based multimedia journalist.)

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