Shamli: Family of ‘gangster’ killed in encounter lives in fear

“The same night, police again came looking for Shoukeen. They mistakenly picked up another Shoukeen, who lives nearby,” adds a neighbour, refusing to be named.

A few weeks later, Shoukeen, 12, left home to work in a brick kiln — like his brothers afraid of staying in Titarwada anymore, Hasan’s wife Akbari, 55, says.

On October 22 last year, Hasan and Akbari’s eldest son Furqan, 36, was gunned down in an alleged encounter — the 16th death in the Yogi Adityanath government’s encounter records. Hasan claims that his family’s harassment, however, has not ceased. Three of his sons, Munawwar (28), Sunnawar (25), and Tasawwur (23), are behind bars, in what he claims are “false cases”. The other six, including Shoukeen, no longer stay home, due to “fear and harassment”, adds Akbari.

As dusk approaches, Hasan says, he too leaves home. The only ones who stay back are Akbari, daughter Aneesa, Tasawwur’s wife Gulista, and one of Furqan’s two sons, aged 12.

“My other sons Irshad (30) and Dilshad (29) are married and work in brick kilns. Ikhlaq (27) works at a saw mill. Farman (22) works as a sugarcane loader, and Iqrar (19) at a furniture shop. But because of constant harassment, they either stay back at their workplace or with their in-laws… With so many sons, I had never imagined I would have no one to support me,” the 64-year-old says, adding that he now tends people’s farms and in spare time, pulls a rickshaw in a neighbouring village.

Among the 10 brothers, Dilshad, Iqrar, Ikhlaq and Shoukeen are the only ones who have not spent time in jail, the family says.

“If any of my sons is indeed a dacoit or a thief, how come we don’t have an electricity connection, a plastered home, or even a gas connection?” Hasan says. A part of the home is roofless.

Police deny the charges, including that Furqan was innocent, adding that he was a hardened criminal, facing cases of murder to dacoity, with a reward of Rs 50,000 on him.

Denying the family’s harassment claims, Muzaffarnagar SSP Anant Deo says, “Furqan had at least 38 cases against him. His brothers and cousins too are behind bars.”

Shamli SP Dev Ranjan Verma fends off questions by saying Furqan’s encounter took place in Muzaffarnagar, not in Shamli.

Hasan says the “harassment” of the family has been going on for several years. Early last year, “Farmaan was picked up after Friday prayers. We didn’t even know he was picked up. He came back about 15 days later, saying he was tortured.”

Hasan also claims that Furqan feared for his life. He shows a letter he had sent to the Uttar Pradesh Director General of Police, among others, in October 2015, seeking that Furqan be shifted from Muzaffarnagar jail. “The jail administration has been threatening to kill him on way to the court hearing,” he wrote in the letter.

Then, in October last year, Furqan suddenly came out on bail, after spending years in jail. “We did not even know he was out. We had not sought his bail. But he was somehow granted bail by the High Court and shot two weeks later. We only came to know the next morning, on October 23.”

Hasan says he went to a Muzaffarnagar court to seek an investigation, “but the plea was rejected”. “Now police are after me, they keep saying ‘goontha laga (give thumb impression)’ on a paper saying I won’t pursue the encounter any more. But once I give them a clean chit, they will kill me the next day,” Hasan says.

Furqan’s lawyer Saleem Ahmad says “all the cases against him were cooked up” citing the “flimsy evidence” linking Furqan to three dacoities in the few days he was on bail in October.

Within a few hours of the October 22 encounter, one of these three FIRs stated that Furqan’s accomplices Rahul and Anees had stated that they had committed dacoities in Shahpur, Rohana and Purkazi, on October 9, 12 and 16, respectively.

In Shahpur, “as per the case diary, their only evidence is that an informer told police that ‘Furqan gang is involved in this case’,” says Ahmad. In Kotwali case, “their evidence is Rahul and Anees’s ‘confession’ after Furqan’s encounter”.

In Purkazi, the “confessional evidence” says “9-10” people, one of them identifying himself as Furqan, had met a lawyer and confessed to the dacoity, seeking his help to protect them and promising to return the loot.

“He was not initially named in any of these cases, or in any other case. His name was added later on,” Ahmad says.

A few days ago, on March 30, a dozen policemen turned up at Hasan’s home with a drummer. While police have said they were on a munadi, or to serve a notice under CrPC Section 82 to Furqan’s cousin Intezar, who is “absconding”, the family says Intezar has never lived with them. “They said we’re a family of criminals, and that criminals live here,” says Akbari.

In a statement, the Uttar Pradesh Police said, “Furqan and his cousin Intezar stay in the same home in Shamli. The Muzaffarnagar police had gone to serve a notice under CrPC 82 to Intezar… It is unfortunate that attempts are being made to dilute the image of police since the police procedure was not against deceased Furqan’s family but for Intezar.”

Says Shamli SP Verma, “A criminal may not live in his paternal home but police will serve notice on the criminal’s home it has in records.”

Alleging police extortion, another neighbour of Hasan says, “Elsewhere, people are scared of thieves. Here people are scared of police.”