Highlights of Chandan Gupta Murder Case: Murdered for patriotic act

According to the traditional classification followed by the political analysts and constitutional experts, Constitutions are either unitary or federal. In a unitary Constitution, the powers of the Government are centralised in one Government, which is Central Government, whereas in the federal Constitution there is division of powers between the federal and State Governments and both are independent in their own nature. It is pertinent to mention herein that when we talk of powers, then what does it constitute to be considered as federal Constitution; the basic and foremost is the “Supremacy of the Constitution” which thereby means that the Constitution in the Federal nature constitutes the supreme law of the land.

The article talks about the case of “Chandan Gupta” murder case which took place on 26.01.2018 as the victim namely Chandan was being lynched as he participated in the Tiranga Yatra in the honour of Bhartiya National Flag which is thus called as “Tiranga or Tricolour”. The NIA court pronounced its judgement in the case dated 02.01.2025 whereby 28 accused were being convicted for the crime committed after the long journey of trial. It needs to be analysed that when Chandan Gupta was lynched by the group of anti-national ideology persons then whether secularism and nationalism was going hand in hand.

Chandan Gupta, alias Abhishek Gupta, participated in the Tiranga Yatra which took place on January 26, 2018, in Kasganj, Uttar Pradesh along with his brother namely Vivek Gupta and others. As soon as the procession of the Tiranga Yatra reached the gate of Government Girls Inter College, Salim, Wasim and Naseem, sons of Barkatullah alias Barki and Zahid alias Jagga, Asif Qureshi alias Hitler, Aslam Qureshi, Asim Qureshi, Nasiruddin, Akram, Tauq, Khillan, Shabab Rahat, Mohammad Nawab Mohsin, Asif Gym Wala, Saqib, Bablu, Nishu and Wasif and others were waiting with armed weapons so as to attack the Yatra. They blocked the way, snatched Tiranga, threw it on the ground thereafter, shouted slogans of ‘Pakistan Zindabad’ and ‘Hindustan Murdabad’ and asked people in the procession to shout the same slogan if they had to pass from there without any injury. At this movement, the victim Chandan with some others opposed the same. Accused Salim targeted Chandan Gupta, lynched and shot him leaving him severely injured. His brother Vivek tried to save his brother Chandan but unfortunately while being taken to the hospital, Chandan died. It was a case of lynching of Chandan being targeted for being part and parcel of Tiranga Yatra.

Judgement passed by NIA Court

On January 2, 2025, special additional district and session judge Vivekanand Sharan Tripathi acquitted two persons from the Chandan Gupta murder case as there was insufficient evidence against them.

The First Information Report was lodged by the father of the victim namely Sushil Gupta on 26.01.2018 on the date of incident itself in Kasganj Police Station. The report had been duly lodged, bearing number as 60/2018 under Section 147, 148, 149, 341, 336, 307, 302, 504, 506, 124A of Indian Penal Code and Section 3 of National Flag Prevention of Insult Act. It is further submitted that the NIA led the first chargesheet on April 26, 2018 in which Salim, Wasim, Naseem, Bablu, Nasruddin, Akram, Tauq, Mohsin, Rahat, Salman, Asif, Nishu, Khillan, Wasif, Imran, Shamshad, Zafar, Shakiv Khalid, Faizan, Imran, Saqir, Azizuddin and Zahid alias Jagga were made accused, whereas in the supplementary chargesheet Asif Qureshi alias Hitler, Asim Qureshi, Shawav, Saqib, Aslam Qureshi, Munajir and Aamir Ra had been made accused for the offence of murder, attempted murder, riotoning and insulting the national flag. Azizuddin died during the trial of the case. Due to this, the case was led against 30 accused. After a long trial in the case on January 2 of 2025, the NIA court Special Judge Hon’ble Vivekanand Sharan Tripathi, pronounced the judgement of life sentence on 28 convicts and also imposed a fine of Rs 80,000 on each convict.

In 2019, Kasganj Session Court framed charges against 23 accused, whereas in November charges were framed against the remaining seven accused for offences under section 147 (riotoning), 148 (riotoning with deadly weapon), 307/149 (attempted murder), 302/149 (murder), 341 (wrongful restraint), 336 (endangerment), 504 (intentional insult), 506 (criminal intimidation), and Section 124K (insult to national flag) of the old Indian Penal Code. Additionally, several of the accused faced charges under the Arms Act for possession of firearms.

Statements of Witnesses

It is pertinent to mention herein that there were in total 18 witnesses in the case in which there were two eye witnesses namely (Saurabh Pal and Vivek Gupta).

Witness-1: In the chief examination, Ripudaman Singh, Inspection Incharge, stated that he was on duty on the day of incident and took the FIR forwarded by the Chandan father on 26.01.2018. After which he conducted the procedure of investigation and later arrested Shamshad, Imran, Jafar, Shakir, Khalid, Faizan, bablu, Akram, Nasummdin, Taufik. Later, SIT was constituted.

Witness-2: Sushil Gupta (victim’s father) stated in the testimony that the accused as mentioned in the chargesheet and FIR lodged by him on 26.01.2018 have vehemently snatched Tiranga from Chandan’s hands and threw it away. Thereafer, they raised slogans of ‘Pakistan Zindabad’ and ‘Hindustan Murdabad’ and threatened that if they have to pass through from here safely then they must also raise slogans against Bharat.

Witness 3: Saurabh Paal (eye witness), in his testimony, said that Tiranga Yatra was organised by them on Independence Day and Republic Day regularly. In the same manner, they were carrying Tiranga Yatra on 26.01.18 in which he along with Chandan, Vivek and others too participated with their bikes having Tiranga on them. He stated as soon as they reached Baddhunagar they witnessed that Muslims in large numbers were standing and blocked their route to pass by and they started attacking the people in procession. He also stated that they tried to escape but again they were stopped and blocked outside Salim’s house by goons coming from Muslim community and threatened to kill them as they raised the slogan of Hindustan Zindabad. They snatched Tiranga from the hand of Chandan; thereafter Salim fired on Chandan.

Witness-4: Vivek Gupta (brother of victim and eye witness) also narrated the same incident as narrated by Surabh. Vivek, in his statement, also took the names of the accused who committed the offence and murdered his brother Chandan on the very same day. He also took the names of Salim, Wasim, Naseem, Bablu, Nasruddin, Akram, Tauq, Mohsin, Rahat, Salman, Asif, Nishu, Khillan, Wasif, Imran, Shamshad, Zafar, Shakiv Khalid, Faizan, Imran, Saqir, Azizuddin and Zahid alias Jagga, Asif Qureshi alias Hitler, Asim Qureshi, Shawav, Saqib, Aslam Qureshi, Munajir and Aamir. They started firing and stone pelting on them and threatened them that if they want to leave the place then they would have to raise the slogan of Pakistan Zindabad and Hindustan Murdabad. They snatched Tiranga from the hand of Chandan; thereafter Salim fired through his weapon on Chandan.

Court Judgement:

Para 179 of the Judgement: The court in the judgement operative court clearly believes that the accused have been unlawfully gathered and conspired to commit the crime on 26.01.2018 and committed an offence against the Hindu ideology and against the people who have faith in such ideology. The learned court also took note that out of the total accused, seven accused were having unlicensed weapons with them. Others were clearly involved in common crime against the people in procession of Tiranga Yatra and therefore committed a communal crime.

Para 180: The learned court noted that the communal ideology as has been witnessed in the case is a biggest barrier in national development. It also leads to hatred towards other ideology and religion. The court also made a note that the major loss of communal ideology and hatred is the loss of life as has been witnessed in the present case where the victim Chandan, alias Abhishek, became prey of Muslim extremists.

Para 182: The learned court considered and noted in the judgement that the incident of Kasganj cannot be dealt with as a normal crime but it is a heinous crime. Therefore strict punishment shall be given to the accused involved in the case so that the example can be set before the rioters on the national platform.

Para 186: It was also brought into notice of the learned court that several NGOs in the country are actively working and involved in anti-national activites. Therefore, cognisance must be taken against them. It was also mentioned therein that NGO Jamat Ulema- E-Hind Legal Cell Institute Data provided legal aid to 400 accused, who have been involved in anti-national activites. They were acquitted by the courts. It was also mentioned in Para 185 that various NGO such as Alliance for Justice and Accounatbility, New York, Citizen for Justice and Peace, Mumbai, Indian American Muslim Council, Washingtin DC, PUCL, Rihaee Manch and others have prepared report “Independent Investigation; Truth of Kasganj” where they have questioned the investigating agencies and tried to create false narrative in the case. But at the very same time no team has reached ground zero to investigate the matter.

Part IV-A of the Constitution provides for the Fundamental Duties. Wherein the first and foremost is being provided as “to abide by the constitution and respect its ideal and institutions, the National Flag and National Anthem.” and therefore it is intended to serve as a constant reminder to every citizen that while the Constitution should be respected and therefore every Citizen of the country must abide by Fundamental Duties. But in the case it has been witnessed that Fundamental Duties are only confined to the pages of the Constitution and have not been taken care by the accused, which led to the loss of lives of the victim, who was part and parcel of the Tiranga Yatra on 26.01.2018 in Bharat.