A Hindu woman, Kiran Devi died yesterday (June 26) in Uttar Pradesh’s Lucknow. She was smashed by a piece of brick by one Sikander Ahmed alias Sonu on refusing to have a physical relationship with him. Sikender and Kiran were in a long-distance relationship for the past three years.
On June 22, Kiran who lived in Ahemadabad came to Fatehpur for attending a wedding function of her relatives. They stayed at Asha marriage guest house in the Faridpur area, however, she went missing the same night.
When the family with locals tracked her, they found her bludgeoned body near an under-construction house by the fields on June 23. She was heavily bleeding, soon she was taken to the hospital. The local doctors referred her to the Hallet Hospital in Kanpur.
Kiran was struggling between life and death in the ICU ward in the hospital and on June 26 she died.
Organiser called the Station House Officer, Bindki, Arun Chaturvedi on June 27 and he said, the victim woman is a daughter of Mali (Gardner) who lives in Surat, she was in Fatehpur to attend a wedding function of her relative.
Following the death of the woman, the police arrested the accused Sikander and during the police interrogation, he confessed to the crime.
The officer told Organiser what Sikander said in his confession; on June 22, the woman called Sikander at 9:29, 9:35 and 9: 37 pm, they met and hugged each other and it was then he tried making physical relation with her. The woman was not comfortable and hence she refused but Sikander forced himself on her.
The woman resisted as she bite his finger, and smashed her phone on his right eye but he did not stop. After Sikender stopped the woman said, now that he has done this to her, either he should take her with him or meet her parents. When she kept on insisting, Sikander pushed her to the ground and smashed her head with a piece of brick lying beside him.
She started bleeding and then he left.
Chaturvedi told Organiser that, Sikander and Kiran were talking to each other through Instagram for the past three years, she knew he was a Muslim as they had a tour and travel business with the name, ‘Ghosie Travelles’.
The statement of the Superintendent of Police, Rajesh Kumar Singh can be seen here.
A First Information Report (number–217/2023) was registered at the Bindki police station by the victim’s father Rakesh on June 23 after they informed the police on June 22 around midnight.
As per the FIR, Kiran went missing from the guest house and the family failed to locate her. They wanted the police to take action.
Chaturvedi told Organiser that, while the family were filing a complaint at the police station the patrolling team informed him that they have found a girl almost 500 metres from the wedding venue. She was Kiran. Soon, she was taken to the local hospital for primary treatment and then to Kanpur.
The woman’s condition was critical and she ultimately succumbed to her injuries on June 26. The same day police nabbed Sikander.
Apart from the sections mentioned in the FIR, i.e IPC section 366 (kidnapping), the accused was also booked under IPC section 307 (attempt to murder), following her death the additional sections for rape (376) and murder (302), were also added.
Notably, when the accused was presented before the victim’s mother she identified him, she said, he is the man who books tickets for her, and he is the one who looks after their travel every time. She also had his contact number in her phone but had no idea that he was speaking to her daughter.
The protestors staged a protest outside the police station demanding the accused to be hanged.
Notably, following the establishment of the motive and the accused confession the district administration razed the house of the accused in Fatehpur. The pictures and videos of the bulldozer drive are shared widely on the internet.
One of the video from the drive can be seen here.
The bulldozer trial started in 2020 by Uttar Pradesh Chief Minister Yogi Adityanath against land mafias and rapists. By 2020 property belonging to numerous criminals including Vikas Dubey, and politician-strongmen and gangsters Mukhtar Ansari and Atique Ahmed had been demolished using bulldozers. In a similar manner, the chief minister of Madhya Pradesh, another state with a CM from BJP, began usage of the bulldozer in March 2022 against properties of mafia, and accused rapists and rioters.
By late-April 2022 bulldozers had also been used on the property of rioters in Delhi and Gujarat, with politics and legal issues ensuing, including over anti-encroachment drives in Rajasthan, a Congress state, but in a BJP held municipality. In Uttarakhand rioters during Hanuman Jayanti processions were threatened with bulldozers parked in the vicinity of property owned by the accused.
