On June 9, the Himachal Pradesh police and officers of the Indian Reserve Batallion (IRB) located gunny bags under a waterfall in the Chamba district. The bags had mutilated the body of a boy, who went missing three days prior to the recovery, identified as, 25-year-old Manohar Lal.
Following the recovery, the district administration tried their best to cover up the matter and ensure no one gets their hands on it. However, the local Hindu activists, prominently the members of Hindu Jagran Manch reached the village and met the victim’s family, they also unearthed the pictures of the severed body of Manohar who was chopped into seven pieces.
Soon after the pictures were shared on social media, the case was picked up by prominent media outlets. Following the horrific demise of Manohar Lal, his family demanded stringent punishment for the accused who were by then identified as, Shabbir Ali, Shafaqat, Mussafir Hussain and a woman Farida and two juveniles.
The media claimed that there was an alleged affair between Manohar and Shabbir’s sister which trigged him and was the motive behind the brutal killing. However, Organiser in its reporting found several truths which the administration tried covering up.
Some of them are listed below:
- The accused family was illegally cutting the Deodar trees and exporting them. Manohar, who used to pass by their house every day, might have seen it.
- The accused family was into illegal animal smuggling and hence he could have killed the victim.
- In winter the whole village moves to the plains but the accused family stayed there only, even during the snowfalls. This raises suspicion as, the village shares border with Kashmir.
- The accused family illegally procured and transported the medicinal plants grown in the forest and was well connected. In the century area, the family is into the killings of western tragopan.
- During demonetization, the accused family exchanged a sum of Rs 95 Lakhs and currently had Rs 2 crore in their bank accounts.
- During the 1998 Chamba massacre, the accused family was interrogated by the police. Notably, The Pakistan-trained Islamic terrorists massacred 35 Hindus, mostly labourers, and injured 11 in the Chamba district bordering Doda in Jammu in early hours of that day.
- The accused family used to organise ‘Jamaat’ in the area.
- These Bakarwals living in the area have grown over time and are mostly migrated from the Kashmir valley.
It is pertinent to mention that tensions prevailed in the hill town as more and more people get to know about the brutal killing of a Hindu man and there were rounds of protests by the locals and the activists. They demand the culprits to be hanged.
Following the protest march, a house belonging to the accused family was set ablaze by miscreants and then the police imposed section 144 in the area for the next 60 days.
Several leaders from the opposition party in the state were not allowed to enter the borders of the village. The Himachal Pradesh Chief Minister Sukhvinder Singh Sukhu called the killing and subsequent burning of the house unfortunate and not in tune with the “Dev Sanskriti” of Himachal. He did not mention any compensation for the aggrieved family nor did he ask the police to investigate the matter thoroughly.
As soon as the protests intensified, the BJP leader and former Himachal CM Jairam Thakur raised the demand to hand over Manohar’s murder case to National Investigation Agency (NIA). Former CM Thakur, during the protests in Chamba, also announces an assistance sum of Rs 5 Lakh for the victim’s family.
BJP State President Rajeev Bindal on June 16, accused the Congress government in the state of not letting them meet the family of the deceased. Jindal also announced to hold a protest march in all 12 districts of the state on June 17th.
The BJP party workers also submitted a memorandum to the Governor through Deputy Commissioners. And they have announced that they will raise this issue in front of the SC-ST commission.
The BJP Rajya Sabha MP Sikander Kumar has taken this matter with the commission. He has also urged the state government to provide financial aid of ₹1 crore and a government job to the deceased’s family.
The state general secretary of the Hindu Jagran Manch, Kamal Gautam who went to meet the victim’s family on June 9 told Organiser in a telephonic interview on June 14 that, the police have detained multiple people and have arrested three culprits so far. He said, the local media under the influence of the administration tried to cover up the issue as not a single report in the case was published till June 13, until the national media picked the case and the picture of Manohar’s butchered body went viral on social media.
On June 16, Gautam told Organiser that no Hindu was involved in the burning of the accused family’s house and this is an attempt to malign the protest and demand of justice by the aggrieved family. On behalf of the Hindu Jagran Manch, Gautam demanded NIA and CBI intervention in the case.
Adding to his revelations, Gautam said, he demanded a drone inquiry of the hilltop as the family of the accused is a Migrated Muslim family which has no links in Himachal, they all have moved from Kashmir. Notably, the local Muslims are also protesting against the accused family.
The Leader of Opposition Jai Ram Thakur said that the main accused has 3 bighas of land in his name while he has encroached upon about 100 bighas. Jai Ram claimed that it has come to his knowledge that the accused had Rs 2 crore cash in his account.
“How did a shepherd acquire so much property is a question that needs answers,” he said. Thakur alleged that the accused was involved in suspicious activities for a long time and lived for almost a year at a secluded place, raising doubts.
