In the 14 days since the murder of Aryan Mishra in Faridabad, fact has battled fiction across media and social media. 

Headlines and tweets said the 19-year-old was “accidentally” shot dead by so-called “cow vigilantes” who assumed the teenager was a Muslim “cow smuggler”. Others said the teenager was killed when he was out with friends to “eat Maggi”.

But after three days of investigation, Newslaundry found that the case is more complicated than it seems.

Aryan was shot dead at around 1 am on August 24 following a 30-km car chase from Sector 21 to Palwal. Five men – Saurabh, Anil Kaushik, Varun, Krishna and Adesh – were arrested on August 28 in connection with the murder.

Media reports quoted sources as saying the five men had “received information” about “suspected cattle smugglers”, so they followed the vehicle Aryan was in. He was allegedly pulled out of the car, a Renault Duster, and shot. Anil Kaushik, one of the accused, is a well-known “cow protector” in the area.

But the Faridabad police has so far refused to confirm this theory of mistaken identity. Instead, ACP Aman Yadav insisted this is merely a “claim of the media” and that the “motive behind the murder has not yet been revealed”.

There are also inconsistencies in the alleged involvement of Aryan’s neighbours in the case, as claimed by Aryan’s family. Here’s what we found so far.

Why was Aryan out that night?

Aryan’s father, Shiyanand Mishra, is originally from Ayodhya but has lived in Faridabad for three decades. He lives in a building in L block of NIT 5 in Faridabad. He has three sons, Aryan being the youngest. The second floor of the building is occupied by the Gulati family, headed by one Kewal Krishan Gulati.

Newslaundry learned that Mishra mortgaged the third floor of the building from Gulati for Rs 4.15 lakh. According to the mortgage agreement, Mishra will charge no interest and Gulati, in return, charges him no rent. The agreement expires on October 20.

Crucially, three members connected to Krishna Gulati’s family – Krishna’s sons Harshit and Shanky, Krishna’s wife Sujata, and Sujata’s friend Kirti – were in the car with Aryan the night of the teenager’s murder. All four were unharmed during the car chase and shooting.

Aryan’s older brother Ajay Mishra told Newslaundry that in the early hours of August 24, Aryan returned home from a birthday party.

“At 1.35 am, Harshit called him downstairs. He was waiting downstairs in his Duster car. Aryan  told our mother he would go and return in five minutes. In his hurry, he did not take his phone with him,” Ajay said. “Kirti, Shanky and Sujata were also in the car, and they left.”

Harshit was driving, with Aryan sitting next to him in the front seat. Shanky, Sujata and Kirti were in the back seat.

Ajay alleged that Harshit summoned Aryan for help to “hide Shanky”, who is accused of attempted murder in a separate case, the details of which are unclear.

“At 3.28 am, Krishna Gulati came to our door saying ‘emergency, emergency, let’s go quickly’. Everyone got scared,” Ajay said. “My father asked what happened and he said ‘let’s go to Palwal, it’s an emergency’. He didn’t tell us something had happened to Aryan. I refused to go and went back to sleep. But when he started taking my father away, I got up and went with them.”

The group went to SSB Hospital in Sector 20 of Faridabad. “Only after arriving there did we find out that my brother had been shot,” Ajay said. 

The hospital’s post-mortem report noted that Aryan was brought “unconscious and unresponsive” and that he had been shot twice, the first bullet entering from the rear glass. 

“Aryan was shot in the head due to which a part of the brain fell out. When he was admitted, that wound was bleeding which resulted in increased acid inside the body and he died,” the report said.

It’s unclear who brought Aryan to the hospital. 

Incorrect ‘identification’ of accused

The following day, the Gulati family offered inconsistent responses on the involvement of their family members.

Hours after the incident, three passengers from the car – Sujata, Harshit and Kirti – spoke to the media. Harshit categorically stated that his brother Shanky “was not in the car” at the time of Aryan’s death. Sujata said Shanky was “absconding” in connection to a “fight”. 

“I have kept him somewhere else,” she said. “Those people were firing thinking it was Shanky. They had threatened to kill him earlier.”

But the Faridabad police and Ajay Mishra confirmed to Newslaundry that Shanky had been in the car that night.

On August 29, Shanky was arrested in connection with another case filed by one Chirag Bhatia at Kotwali station. The FIR was registered under section 109(1) of the Indian Penal Code and the Arms Act. Shanky was arrested alongside a co-accused named Akshay Sharma, who is the son of Sujata’s friend Kirti Sharma.

Additionally, when talking to the media, Sujata said she had “recognised the people who shot Aryan”. She named them as “Bikku, Pulkit and Piyush”. Kirti then prompted her and she added, “There were also Bhure and two more boys. They got down from the car in front of me.”

On the basis of Sujata’s claims, Aryan’s father filed a police complaint on August 24 that named Yogesh Rajput, Piyush Bhatia alias Vikku, and three others. But four days later, the police arrested a completely different group of people based on CCTV footage – Anil Kaushik, a well-known “cow protector”, and four of his companions. 

After the arrests, Ajay said he confronted Sujata to ask her why she claimed to have identified the shooters. He had a recording of the conversation, but Newslaundry could not verify its authenticity. Ajay said Sujata told him she “did not know it was the gaushala people” – Anil Kaushik runs a “cow protection” organisation – and that she was willing to “give the statement again”.

Ajay is unconvinced.

“Why did Sujata and Kirti lie after the incident saying they could identify the shooters?” he asked. “They told four names to the police and the media.” 

He also pointed out that Sujata and others locked their home on August 25 and vanished. “If they are innocent, why did they leave their house? They did not even attend my brother’s final ceremonies.”

Newslaundry asked ACP Aman Yadav whether the Gulati family had gone into hiding.

“I don’t know if they have locked the house and gone somewhere,” he said. “We will call them when we have to record their statements. If they don’t come, we will further look into it.”

Newslaundry telephoned Harshit Gulati to ask why he had told the media Shanky wasn’t in the car, and also ask why his mother and Kirti had named people who weren’t eventually arrested.

“We were scared at the time. That’s why something like this happened,” he said. “I don’t remember what we said properly.” He then said he was busy and cut the call. 

Sharma: ‘Destiny is very strong’ 

While Newslaundry could not contact any of the other Gulatis for this report, this reporter visited Kirti Sharma at her home about half a kilometre away.

When asked what happened that night, Sharma said, “I do not want to talk to you.”

When asked whether she was acquainted with Aryan, Sharma said, “I know the Gulati family. I haven’t spoken to them since the incident, nor have I met them. Now the whole matter has come into the open. Everything has come in the media. The accused have been arrested. What do you want to know from us? I have told everything to the police. Go from here.”

Newslaundry asked Sharma about Aryan’s shooting – was he shot from behind and then again after the car stopped? 

Sharma interrupted the question and said, “Destiny is very strong. A bullet doesn’t hit you after taking permission. When he was shot, he bent to his right. After that, the car stopped and everyone got down. I was in a lot of pain. I got down after a long time. I don’t know when or how the second shot was fired.”

Interestingly, during the media interaction, Harshit had said a second shot was fired at Aryan “after the car stopped”. Harshit said he and the others “came out and raised our hands, so they left us and went away”.

Ajay said he’s unsure about this sequence of events.

“They say they were chased for 30 km. During that time, firing took place. But no other bullets hit the car, only one bullet hit and that too it hit Aryan directly,” he said. “The police found only two bullets, both of which were in Aryan’s body. Why didn’t they call the police after stopping the car? The police was only informed after going to the hospital. After the incident, they parked the car at a petrol pump in Badkhal.”

Police still investigating ‘motive’

After Aryan’s murder, his father Shiyanand told the media he met accused Anil Kaushik through the police

“He said he thought my son was a Muslim. Now he regrets killing a Brahmin,” Shiyanand was quoted as saying.

Ajay told Newslaundry he had accompanied his father to meet Kaushik. 

“We demanded to meet him,” he said. “We met him at Police Lane in Sector 30 [where the Crime Branch office is located]. The police brought him in front of us. He was wearing only his underwear.”

Ajay confirmed that Kaushik said he had “made a mistake”, that he had “committed Brahmahatya”, and that if he had “killed a butcher, cow smuggler Muslim, I wouldn’t have regretted it”. 

Ajay said his father asked Kaushik what “gave him the right to use weapons” and why only Aryan had been targeted.

“Kaushik did not answer any of Papa’s questions,” Ajay said. “He apologised, got up and left.”

Meanwhile, ACP Aman Yadav reiterated that the investigation is ongoing.

“When our investigation is complete, we will definitely reveal it to the media,” he said. “But saying anything now will affect the investigation…We have also recovered the weapon. The reason for the murder is not clear yet.”

Another Crime Branch officer who is part of the investigation told Newslaundry that while Kaushik is a “cow protector”, it is “not necessary that all work done by him is related to cow protection”.

“We are investigating from this angle as well,” he said. 

This report was originally published in Newslaundry Hindi. It was translated to English by Shardool Katyayan.

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