A 17-year-old Kashmiri youth died in the SMS Hospital, Jaipur after sustaining injuries due to thrashing from his co-workers. The altercation took place on February 5 and the victim succumbed to his injuries the next evening.
The victim Basit aka Gulam Mohidin Khan and his friend Sufiyan worked as waiters with a catering firm. Basit was a resident of Kupwara and his friend Sufiyan, is from Baramulla.
The two were leaving the wedding venue after work on February 5 when Basit and Aditya, another catering staff, got into an argument. Both wanted to sit on the front seat of the vehicle that was to drop the staff. This escalated into a brawl and Aditya reportedly hit Basit on the head.
Speaking to the media Sufiyan said, “One person was holding Basit and the other was hitting him. The driver dropped us half way to our home and we walked the rest of the way to Hasanpura. Basit started to weep that his head was hurting and also vomited. We took him to the SMS hospital where the doctors first said that he was suffering from food poisoning but later operated on him for his head injury.”
“Basit was 17 years old and had studied in the Army School. He wanted to work in the Army like his father late Khursheed Ahmed Khan. But he was a year younger than 18 and had to wait,” his uncle informed.
An FIR has been lodged by Sufiyan at the Harmada police station and the accused have been booked under Section 307 (attempt to murder), Sec 341 (wrongful detention) and Sec 323 (voluntarily causing hurt). Police have arrested one person, Aditya, a resident of Uttar Pradesh and two others have been detained.
“The boys who attacked Basit were outside the police station when I left after lodging the FIR. They wanted me to take it back. They threatened me,” said Sufiyan.
The Police have ruled out the possibility of a hate crime or mob lynching, “The case was initially registered under Sec 307 but now Sec 302 has been added. It was a fight that suddenly took place. There was no pre-planning. The fight did not take place due to a person belonging to any particular religion or state. Even the FIR does not hint to any such aspect,” said Ashok Gupta, ACP, Jaipur.
Basit’s body has been handed over to relatives and they have left with it for Kupwara in an ambulance.