On the morning of January 3, Deepak Rao, a BJP worker, was hacked to death in broad daylight allegedly by four Muslim men. Following Deepak’s death, on that very night, a 47-year-old owner of a fast food joint, Basheer, was hacked up with machetes by a gang of seven. Basheer’s murder is being seen as a retaliation to Deepak’s killing.
CCTV footage accessed by TNM shows two men hacking Basheer. The rest of them are not visible in the footage. Basheer is motionless in the video at this point. He had sustained severe injuries on his head, tongue, chest and arms. Basheer’s 21-year-old son, who works as a store manager in a watch showroom, told TNM that his father is in a critical condition and is unable to speak, although he has gained consciousness.
“They hacked my father’s tongue. His head has deep wounds. So do his arms and his chest. He is in a critical state. This morning I went into the ICU to see him but he was motionless,” a worried Imran says.
Basheer went to Saudi Arabia in 1994 and opened a restaurant so he could provide for his wife and child back home. Imran says that Basheer came back to India only one-and-a-half-years ago.
“My father used to run a restaurant in Saudi Arabia for over 20 years. His sole aim was to provide for the family. He only came back to India because my brother and I insisted that he stay close to home. He never got involved in any of these religious or political organisations and their activities,” Imran says.
According to Imran, Basheer was closing down his eatery, Chinese Fast Food Restaurant in Akash Bhavan area, around 9.45 pm when seven miscreants on three bikes barged into the hotel and attacked Basheer.
“My father was about to pull down the shutter when these men barged in and began hacking him with machetes. One of the helpers who was there ran away. My father tried to escape and he came outside on the road but he fell down as he was injured. Then two men began hacking him once again and they left when my father became utterly motionless,” Imran says.
Around 10.00 pm, Shekhar Kulkarni, a local ambulance driver stopped at the scene of the crime to see why a crowd had gathered.
“When I was passing by, I saw some people who were calling the police and one man looked like he had been hurt badly. When I went near the man and saw, he was lying in a huge pool of blood,” Sekhar says.
Sekhar says that the people were scared to touch Basheer, which is why they stood there looking helpless. “They were afraid of touching him. They were standing there and waiting for the police to arrive. But he was whimpering and then the sound also stopped. I just wanted to help him. I did not think too much. I just took him to AJ Hospital,” Sekhar said.
Initially, Sekhar assumed that the man lying on the ground had met with a terrible accident. But when he went up close to see what had occurred, Sekhar saw deep cuts on Basheer’s body.
Stating that there was false news being spread about his father being a member of political organisations, Imran said that his father only wanted to live a peaceful live with his family.
“That morning (January 3) one BJP worker was killed. This was just revenge of some sort I feel. Because a Hindu man was killed, they wanted to kill a Muslim man and my father became the unfortunate target. These kinds of revenge killings are not new to our area. Without any rhyme or reason, people get murdered. I only appeal to people to stay peaceful and pray for my father’ recovery. None of our family members wanted to harm anyone. We were leading quite lives and by ourselves. What happened to my father was so unfortunate,” Imran laments.
The Urwa Police have registered a case of attempted murder and are trying to track down the men seen in the CCTV footage