Bhopal (MP)/Chapra (Bihar): A man in Bihar was lynched by a mob of at least 70 who accused him of smuggling beef. Fifty-five-year-old Zahiruddin was a truck driver who worked for an animal bones supplier and byproduct manufacturer. He had been transporting animal bones – an essential component in the pharmaceutical industry – when he was killed. Because he was partially disabled on one of his legs, he could not run from the mob, say his colleagues.
The incident occurred on June 28, a day before Bakrid, in the Paigambarpur village of Saran district in Bihar. Saran is also known as Chhapra, after the district headquarters.
Zahiruddin worked for what is commonly called a ‘bone mill’ – a factory that takes cattle bones and manufactures a powder that is essential to the production of gelatin, which in turn is used widely in the pharmaceutical, cosmetic and health supplements industry, among others.
On June 29, a day after the incident, Jalalpura Police Station registered an FIR against six individuals – Prakash Singh, Sunil Singh, Kallu, Tribhuvan Singh, Anup Singh, Pramod Singh – and 30 unnamed others under Sections 342 (punishment for wrongful confinement), 147 (punishment for rioting), 148 (rioting, armed with a deadly weapon), 149 (unlawful assembly) and 302 (murder) of the Indian Penal Code.
One of the named accused, Sunil Singh, is the mukhiya or chief of Paigambarpur village.
The Wire spoke to the Station House Officer of Jalalpura Police Station, Pintu Kumar.
“The police have successfully identified and apprehended seven previously unknown suspects in connection with the case. However, there are innocent individuals involved. The police have obtained CCTV footage as part of the investigation. We are awaiting supervision and guidance from senior officers. Any further action will be taken in accordance with the orders given by the higher authorities,” informed Kumar.
A fact-finding team of the Association for Protection of Civil Rights visited Zahiruddin’s house in Marhaura. One of the authors of the report, Saif Ul Islam, is a part of the Association and the fact-finding team.
Zahiruddin’s house in Marhaura. Photo: Saif Ul Islam.
Zahiruddin’s is a small house, built under a government scheme. In Marhaura, women’s faces are all behind the ghoonghat or pardah. The team found that Zahiruddin’s sons work as labourers. His wife, observing the Islamic mournigng period, did not wish to speak to the team.
Instead, Shafaqat, the bone mill owner who employed Zahiruddin, conversed with the team. Shafaqat has been supporting the family and is its only help at this time. Zahiruddin’s sons, who do not have formal education, also appeared to depend heavily on Shafaqat, directing the fact-finding team’s questions to him.
Shafaqat told the team that his grandfather had started this business – in 1955. Since then, his have been running it smoothly. The business employs Hindus and Muslims, both. Since inception, this is the first communal incident that any of its workers have faced.
Shafaqat said that he believes that those who killed Zahiruddin were fringe elements but that he was lynched in the presence of police. “Five accused in mob lynching have pleaded guilty,” he said.
‘A raging mob and a disabled target’
Sohail, the younger brother of Shafaqat, also works at the bone mill. Sohail said that on June 28, five employees had accompanied Zahiruddin on the journey to Marhaura.
The truck driver had called Sohail at around half past three in the afternoon, informing him that the side wing of their vehicle has broken.
The vandalised vehicle, after Zahiruddin’s death. Photo: By arrangement
Sohail then left his home for Paigambarpur when he received another call on the way from another employees. From him, Sohail learnt that local youth – comprising mostly military aspirants, who are coloquially called “trainees” – had gathered around the vehicle. The caller suspected that they had been alerted by the smell of bones. “They are inspecting the vehicle by climbing on top of it,” the caller had said.
Their phones were then snatched. “Kal tumhara tyohar hai. Tum log bahut ud rahe ho. Tumhein tumhari auqat dikhate hai,” one of the attackers had allegedly told the bone mill employees. Translated, the line means, “Tomorrow is your festival, so you guys are on quite a high. We will show you your place.”
Sohail stressed that the vehicle had been loaded only with bones and had no meat.
When Sohail reached Paigambarpur with a companion on his Scorpio, they did saw a raging mob awaiting them. They parked the vehicle behind the truck and dismounted. It was around sunset then.
“A mob of 70 people attacked us with stones. They broke the glass of our Scorpio,” Sohail said.
Scared, Sohail and his companion got on the car and drove away, he said. The other five employees also ran for their lives. Zahiruddin, who had been partially disabled since childhood, could not run. “He could not withstand the brick blows,” said Sohail.
A Unique business
Shafaqat’s company is called ‘Unique Bone Fertilizers’. He said that it is indeed a “unique business”.
There was earlier a 5% sales tax applicable to the business before the Goods and Services Tax was introduced. However, with the introduction of GST, the Union government decided to promote the business and waived the tax. Currently it is nil. The factory, licensed under the Prime Minister Employment Generation Program (PMEGP), has been successfully running for three decades.
“The formation of this bone factory (bone mill) was overseen by the Task Force Committee under the supervision of the District Magistrate who also played a crucial role in approving the loan for the PMEGP initiative,” said Shafaqat.
He added that the raw material – cattle bones – collected from slaughterhouses and dead animals found in rural areas, serve as the primary source for our operations. “Our core process involves crushing these bones and supplying them to gelatine factories. The gelatine produced is further sold to pharmaceutical companies,” he commented.
Shafaqat manages the material collection specifically from Bihar, while his supply chain extends throughout India. He supplies to renowned companies like Sterling Biotech and India Gelatine. He has demanded the formation of strict laws against attacks on employees from the convenor of the ‘Haddi Factory Union’, P.D. Singh.
This is not the first communal incident that the panchayat of Paigambarpur has witnessed. In July 2019, a mob lynching killed three locals, Bides Nat, Raju Nat, and Naushad Qureshi. The mob had suspected them of cattle theft.
Locals told the fact-finding team that no police action was taken in that case.
“Zahiruddin would not have died if serious action was taken in the earlier case,” a local said.