Santola Devi, owner of a sweet shop in Uttar Pradesh’s Jaganipur village succumbed to her injuries after she was lynched by her Muslim neighbours.
Santola was 62 years old who operated a sweet shop with her disabled son and was viciously attacked and mercilessly beaten by her neighbours in a Muslim dominated village.
The attack was carried out merely a day after Eid. According to reports published in OpIndia, for the last 4-5 years, Santola Davi was targetted by her Muslim neighbours, who called her a ‘Kaafir’ (a derogatory reference to non-Muslims) and an ‘enemy of Islam’.
Quran says that idol worshippers and non-believers of Allah should be deemed as an enemy and also sanctions violence against them. As per Verse 5:33 in the Quran,
Indeed, the penalty for those who wage war against Allah and His Messenger and strive upon earth [to cause] corruption is none but that they be killed or crucified or that their hands and feet be cut off from opposite sides or that they be exiled from the land. That is for them a disgrace in this world; and for them in the Hereafter is a great punishment.
However, the Uttar Pradesh Police and the administration have shown apathy in handling the case. The case saw some light of day three months later when a video of Santola Devi emerged in the social media in which her son was seen pleading for justice and made serious allegations of apathy against the UP police.
Details of Santola Devi’s autopsy report is startling as one reads how she was brutally attacked. The Hindu woman was hacked to death and the report states she sustained injuries in three places and died due to excessive blood loss.
Only after local MLA, Dheeraj Ojha and the Superintendent of Police took cognizance, the lynchers Khalil, Aashiq Ali, Arshad, Minaj and others were arrested. However, there was a delay on the part of the police who did initiated action only after the intervention of higher authorities.
Santola Davi’s son Pradeep had told OpIndia, “Even after the woman’s death, the Muslim neighbours had no remorse”. One of the accused Arshad’s mother even threatened him.
Pradeep wanted his mother to leave the village and move with him because there are hardly 10 Hindu families living amidst 100 Muslim families in Jaganipur village. But Santola Davi did not want to leave her ancestral home. One of the attackers, Jehanabano is still absconding from the police. She had escaped by concealing her identity by wearing a burkha.
Pradeep has accused the police of shielding the lynchers and allegedly he is being still being pressurised to withdraw the case. Another serious allegation Pradeep has made is that attempts are being made to implicate his brothers in false cases.