At about 8.30 am on May 7, Mohammad Farid was standing in a long queue outside the higher primary school in Obari village in Sambhal, one of 10 seats in Uttar Pradesh that polled that day. As he stood patiently, a group of “70 to 80” policemen entered the school’s iron gate and began checking voters’ slips and IDs.  

“They started beating us with sticks saying that fake voting was taken place,” Farid said. “I was beaten many times on my elbows, buttocks and legs. We didn’t even get a chance to escape. Women were not spared either. They were cursing us in foul language.”

He added, “The policemen were saying, ‘All these are socialists. Kill them.’”

Sambhal has hit the headlines, not for the high voter turnout of 62.81 percent that it recorded that day, but for the police allegedly assaulting numerous voters in Muslim-majority villages. Voters claim the police targeted them to dissuade them from voting for Zia Ur Rehman Barq, the Samajwadi Party candidate.

The BJP won Sambhal in 2014 but lost it to the SP-BSP alliance in 2019. It’s traditionally been an SP stronghold, and nearly half its population is Muslim. SP candidate Barq, also the MLA from Kundarki in Sambhal district, is the grandson of late SP leader Shafiqur Rahman Barq. His grandfather was a five-time MP and four-time MLA until his death in February. 

Zia Ur Rehman Barq told Newslaundry he is considering legal action after the violence.

“At the behest of BJP, the police here have targeted Muslims and used batons on them. Not only the entire country but the world has seen what has happened in Sambhal. This has tarnished the image of the country. The Supreme Court and the Election Commission should take cognisance of this matter, if this doesn’t happen then I am talking to my lawyers for further action. We will approach the court,” he said.

But what really happened in Sambhal that day? A day after the violence, Newslaundry visited multiple villages across the constituency to piece together the story.

Obari: ‘No one spared’

In Obari village, Rahim Baksh showed Newslaundry injuries on his hands and feet. 

“We were standing in the queue to cast our votes when a group of policemen snatched our Aadhaar cards and voting slips and lathi-charged us,” he said. “The crowd was dispersed. No one was spared, not even women.”

Indicating the bandage on his hand, he said, “I got the injury from a stick. There is a lot of swelling and a lot of pain.”

Zarin, a resident of Obari, opened up her mobile phone to play a video of events from May 7. “We were beaten like this when we were standing in the queue,” she said. “Women and elderly people were beaten even when they fell down. They didn’t leave anyone.”

She alleged she was hit with a police baton on her hand. “But I still came back again to vote later when Pinky’s family arrived,” she said, referring to the SP’s Asmoli MLA Pinky Yadav. “But my son was not allowed to vote. I am old. I’ve never seen polling like it happened yesterday.”

Obari locals claimed “around 300” people were injured in their village alone and that the police allegedly lathi-charged voters “three times” – at 8.30 am, later in the afternoon, and then that evening.

One of those injured was Zarar, whose hand is swollen from his injuries. His wife Gulshan said her husband, who is a daily wager at a brick kiln, is the sole earning member of their family. “The police beat him so much that my husband cannot work,” she said, adding that the police “snatched” her Aadhar card and voter slip so she couldn’t vote. “Now will the police give us food?”

Mohammad Anees, who lives some distance away from the school, was lying on his bed when Newslaundry visited his house. His face and hands were bandaged. There were injuries on his knees; flies buzzed around his wounds and he kept shooing them away.

“Yesterday I went to vote and the police beat us there a lot,” he said. “My head hurts a lot. The police did not treat us well.”

A video shot on May 7 showed an elderly man in Obari lying unconscious on the road, with police personnel standing nearby. This man is Raees Ahmed, 80, who alleged the police violently beat him and his family members with batons.

“When I was coming to vote, the policemen were beating up my son. When I went to save him, they hit him too,” he said.

Raees said his son, Mohammad Alam, is a constable with the UP Provincial Armed Constabulary. “He was home on vacation. When the police were beating him, he tried telling them he was a member of the police. So they beat him more, asking how he got leave,” Raees said.

Raees’s daughter Shabana also had injuries on her hand. “I was beaten with sticks by the police,” she said. “My brothers were beaten badly by the police. The police took my younger brother at 11 am and then recorded his statement and released him at 7 that evening.”

Shaan Alam, 41, who runs a grocery shop in Obari, told Newslaundry he’s struggling to walk as a result of injuries sustained on his back and leg that day. “I was standing in the queue to cast my vote. Then the policemen came from behind and started asking for my Aadhaar card and voting slip,” he said. “Then they suddenly tore the slip and resorted to lathi-charge.”

He added, “Due to police lathi-charge, voting exercise was halted for about 1-1.5 hours. Voting was reduced considerably because of this.”

Nasir Hussain, a local journalist with Amar Ujala, confirmed to Newslaundry that “around 300 people” were injured. 

“I have been practising journalism since 1990,” he said. “Seeing yesterday’s incident, it’s as if democracy is coming to an end. The people who rule want themselves to remain in power. Wherever there are Muslim villages in our area, such incidents took place.”

Did he report on what had happened?

“I wrote the news but it was not published in the way it should have been published,” he alleged. “The news was cut and shortened. After the incident, I received many calls asking me not to write this news report because those who were injured were pressured to withdraw their statements. They were told not to tell anything to journalists. A considerable effort was made to stop the news.”

Obari has 4,459 registered voters. By the end of the day, 2,712 cast their votes.

Detained for ‘shooting video’ of violence

In Shahbazpur Kalan village in Sambhal, locals told Newslaundry three men – Islam, Sabir and Arbaaz – were detailed by the police on May 7 and released on May 9.

The violence here took place at the polling booth set up in the Government Inter College. The three men, whose ages we couldn’t confirm, live nearby. Their families claimed the police picked them up because the three men were shooting videos of the violence at the polling booth from the roofs of their homes. 

“My son was sleeping at home when the policemen broke the door of our house and came inside,” said Islam’s mother Shahjahan. “They started asking for his mobile. They abused us and beat my daughter-in-law with a stick. While beating my son, they took him away. They repeatedly asked for the mobile used to make videos.”

Islam’s wife Nagma said, “They were abusing me and asking for a mobile phone. My husband and I folded our hands in front of the police. Our three children were crying but the police dragged him away.”

Arbaaz’s wife Alisha had a similar story. “We were sleeping at home while others had gone to the fields. There was a lot of noise near the house,” she said. “When we opened the door, the police entered our house. The police beat my husband and took him away.”

Sabir’s father Altaf Hussain told Newslaundry the police barged into his house too and asked for a mobile phone. “When we refused, they beat our son and took him away,” he said. “A lot of injustices and atrocities are happening to us. The police are known for justice but they themselves are committing atrocities. The aim of the police was to stop polling and ensure Muslims shouldn’t be able to vote.”

The three men returned to their homes on May 9. Sabir told Newslaundry the police took them to Asmoli police station and “beat him in the car” on the way there. At the police station, he was “beaten with sticks”.

“There is a lot of pain on my body,” he said. “I was brutally beaten. They said I had made a video.”

Harish Kumar, station house officer of Asmoli police station, told Newslaundry that the men were detained under Section 151 of the Code of Criminal Procedure and “later released”.

Others in Shahbazpur Kalan described how the police allegedly beat them. One Jamshed Ali showed us injuries on his hand, Babu had injuries on his leg from where the police “beat me a lot”, and Bhure had injuries on his shoulders and knees that made it “difficult to walk”.

“I was beaten with sticks,” said Sakina, who lives in the village. “I have injuries in such places that I cannot even show you. They beat everyone mercilessly. We live on rent and make our living by selling cow dung cakes and doing labour.”

Out of Shahbazpur Kalan’s 6,000-odd voters, 3,679 eventually voted that day. 

In Mansoorpur village, Gufran told Newslaundry he was waiting in the queue at the local polling booth when the police “snatched” his voter ID and “beat me with sticks”. Hem Singh, who was also injured in the queue, said, “The police beat us a lot. What they did isn’t right.”

Hem’s wife Parameshwari said their son Rishipal was beaten too, “first with sticks and then with kicks and punches”. Rishipal was eventually too afraid to cast his vote. Around 1,641 people out of 2,906 voters eventually voted in Mansoorpur.

In Mubarakpur Bandh village, where 1,972 of 3,192 voters cast their votes on May 7, a local named Rajpal said, “The police slapped me on my ear. Now the ear has become useless. I hear no sound from it.”

‘Fabricated’, claim the police 

But what does the police say?

Harish Kumar, the SHO of Asmoli, said he had “no knowledge” of the violence. When pointed towards videos and media reports, Kumar said, “Police teams had reached the polling stations during which some youths got scared after seeing the police and a stampede broke out. Due to that, the incident came to light. The police have not resorted to any kind of lathi-charge.”

When asked about the police lathi-charge, Santosh Singh, the circle officer of Asmoli, said, “All these things are completely wrong, untrue and fabricated. I was not at any of the incident sites. Talk to the higher officials who were present at the incident site about this.”

Newslaundry made several attempts to contact Kuldeep Singh, Sambhal’s superintendent of police, but he did not speak to us.

Meanwhile, SP candidate Burq is making the rounds of villages, talking to those injured by the police. He alleged that four top cops – Sambhal circle officer Anuj Chaudhary, Asmoli SHO Harish Kumar, Amroha inspector Ranveer Singh, and Rampur circle officer Jitendra Kumar – were part of a “conspiracy” to target and attack Muslim villages. 

Why these officers? “These people know the entire situation here – which people live at which places,” Burq said. “Ranveer was earlier the station officer in Asmoli. The circle officer of Rampur was earlier in Sambhal. The present circle officer of Sambhal, Anuj Chaudhary, caused a lot of harm to Azam Khan. What they have done is unforgivable. They should not only be dismissed but a case should be registered and they should be sent to jail.”

None of the police officers he named spoke to Newslaundry about these allegations.

This report was translated from Hindi to English by Shardool Katyayan.

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