“Jaise main mar rahi hu uske wajah se, waise hi uske saath bhi ho jaayein” (The way I am dying painfully, he should also suffer the same way) were the last words spoken by Ankita Singh, the 17-year-old girl from Dumka in Jharkhand who succumbed to her injuries recently. She was set ablaze by a stalker, Mohd Shahrukh Hussain, for rejecting his advances.
Ankita’s death had shaken the nation’s conscious. But even more shocking was the remorseless smile on the face of the beast when he was being led to the police jeep by two constables. The confidence with which he walked in front of the camera speaks volumes of the mindset of some Islamists who think the Hindu girls are expendable.
Ankita’s case is not an isolated one. Atrocities against Hindu girls have become so rampant that most of them are not even reported. Some are highlighted only after social media outrage. The latest instance is the barbaric murder of Ankita Singh. This case caught the attention of the media days after the incident. That too, only under the pressure of the pertinent questions by the urban chatterati about the lack of discussion about this brutal murder of a Hindu girl by a Muslim man.
“What happened to Ankita is not a normal incident and is a part of a larger conspiracy where people of one community are trying to forcefully convert people of other faith to Islam and thereby change demography” — Raghubar Das, Former Jharkhand Chief Minister
Shahrukh had mounted several attacks on the girl. Despite her disapproval and warning, he used to stalk her. He had ransacked the house of the girl earlier. On August 22, enraged over her rejection, Sharukh along with his friend poured petrol through the window where she was sleeping and set afire. The badly burnt girl died on the intervening night of August 27 and 28. He was booked under IPC section 328 (causing hurt by means of poison etc.) 307 (attempt to murder) and 506 (criminal intimidation).
Ankita’s father Sanjeev Singh told the media, “Shahrukh used to tell her – marry me, accept Islam or else I will make your life hell.” Hussain lived in the same colony as the Singh family and had been stalking Ankita for more than a year now, especially following her on her way to school. He somehow got her contact number and started calling her to make her acquiesce to his proposals.
Shahrukh wanted to have a “love relationship” with Ankita, said her father. However, the girl refused him citing her career ambitions. Apparently, Shahrukh had also told her that he would help her in becoming a police officer if she accepted his proposal.
Patronage by police and politicians
Shahrukh, the Islamic radical was chasing her for long and even barged into her house and vandalised it in 2019. After Ankita made noise, neighbours gathered and beat him up.
When the matter reached the police station, a Muslim sub-inspector and Congress MLA Irfan Ansari brokered peace with Ankita’s family. Recalcitrant Sharukh did not mend his ways. He along with Muslim friends used to harass her regularly. Even after the horrific crime by Shahrukh, DSP Noor Mustafa, the Muslim investigation officer who was appointed by the Government, tried to scuttle the probe to save the culprit, alleged the relatives.
After the protest by the locals and the Hindu organisations, DSP Noor Mustafa of Dumka has been suspended following allegations of negligence and helping the accused Shahrukh Hussain in weakening the case.
Former Jharkhand CM Babulal Marandi has also shared some documents stating that DSP Mustafa has not only been anti-tribal but also had a communal trait to his personality.
The former said that one Zulfikar, who exploited tribals, was booked under the SC/ST Act and was sent to jail. Noor Mustafa allegedly did not file a chargesheet for 90 days. In the documents shared by Marandi, this information is given along with the signature of the judge. On basis of these documents, Zulfikar got bail. As per Marandi, DSP Noor Mustafa filed the chargesheet sometime after Zulfikar got out of jail.
Demography Change, a Big Threat
Meanwhile, former Jharkhand Chief Minister Raghubar Das has raised concern about the change in demography in Jharkhand. He said that what happened to Ankita has happened to thousands of girls and women in Jharkhand.
Raghubar Das alleged that what happened to Ankita is not a normal incident and is a part of a larger conspiracy where people of one community are trying to forcefully convert people of other faith to Islam and thereby change demography. He also talked about the illegal encroachment of land by Islamists and said that illegal Bangladeshi immigrants have taken over about 10,000-acre land.
After few days of the horrific incident, on August 29, Islamists in Murumatu village of Jharkhand’s Palamu district demolished the houses of people belonging to the Mahadalit Musahar community. They destroyed dozens of houses and forced them to leave the village.
Ankita’s father Sanjeev Singh told the media, “Shahrukh used to tell her – marry me, accept Islam or else I will make your life hell.” Hussain lived in the same colony as the Singh family and had been stalking Ankita for more than a year now
The people of the Musahar community were living in the village for over 30 years. Shockingly even the police failed to take any action against the Islamists. The incident was confirmed by Dhuma Kisku, who is the in-charge of Pandu Police Station. He said that the matter relates to land dispute and that the Islamists want to occupy the land which they claim belongs to a Madrassa.
Earlier BJP MP Nishikant Dubey on August 8 raised the issue in the Lok Sabha on “infiltration” of Bangladeshi Muslims into Jharkhand, demanding that the Government needs to carry out the National Population Register exercise there and dismiss the Hemant Soren-led State Government for aiding “Islamisation”.
Bangladeshi Muslims by marrying “gullible” tribal girls are looking to change the demography of the region, the BJP MP from Godda alleged. He cited the example of a head of a zila parishad in Sahibganj who was elected on tribal quota and married to a Muslim. “There are thousands of such examples,” he added.
A Dangerous Trend
Ankita is not the first victim to have succumbed to the injuries inflicted by a Muslim stalker after she declined to reciprocate his overtures. There have been innumerable cases of a Hindu girl facing brutalities by a Muslim man under similar pretexts and circumstances. The facts show a dangerous trend.
May 2018: A 25-year-old fruit seller Abdul Samad from Secunderabad stabbed an 18-year-old girl E Madhavi alias Madhu under the jaw for refusing to go out with him.
October 2018: Syed Muzammil killed Mansi Dixit, a 20-year-old aspiring model, at his home in Andheri because she refused to have sex with him.
June 2020: A 19-year-old woman Naina Kaur was stabbed multiple times by a stalker Sher Khan in the middle of a road at a market near Ghaziabad’s Tila Mor. She was rushed to a hospital in Delhi, where she succumbed to the injuries.
June 2020: A Dalit girl Shivani Khobiyaan of Haryana killed by Arif for denying his marriage proposal.
February 2021: Layeek Khan used a hammer to brutally murder Hindu girl Neetu for refusing his marriage proposal in the Begum Vihar area of Rohini in North West Delhi.
April 2021: Haider Ali along with his friends slit the throat of Nidhi in Krishna Nagar, Uttarakhand after she refused his marriage proposal.
September 2021: National-level kho-kho player Babli Rani (24) was strangled to death in Bijnor, UP last year by railway labourer Shahzad (26) after she resisted his attempt to rape her.
April 2022: Azhar slit the throat of Anusha, a 23-year-old girl, in Hanamkonda, Hyderabad. The man was angered by her rejection of his proposal for a relationship.
August 2022: Arman Ali along with his friends allegedly shot a girl studying in Standard XI because she had stopped talking to him after knowing that he is a Muslim. Ali initially faked his identity using a Hindu name.
In the wake of the recent incidents it also must be discussed whether these young Muslim men and boys are being incentivised by NGOs and organisations such as the Popular Front of India (PFI) to carry on Love Jihad in a systematic fashion. Sunila Sovani, in her book, Love Jihad, has chronicled how young Muslim men are roaming around in fancy bikes, flashy clothes to maintain an image to woo Hindu girls. Perhaps this is the reality behind police officers like Noor Mustafa Ansari trying to sabotage the heinous act for which Hussain is to be blamed following which he was suspended from the case amidst allegations that he might be functioning for the Popular Front of India.
