A Muslim woman along with her mother and her daughter were assaulted by men who barged into their home dressed in civilian clothes and claimed to be police officers in Bihar’s Sitamarhi on December 24.
Speaking to The Observer Post, the victim Reshami Khatoon, a widow, said, “They broke our gate and came inside. The way they behaved didn’t look like they were from the police. They came at night when we had no man at home. They started to use vulgar words and intimidated all of us. When I questioned them who they were, they got very angry, held my hair and pushed me towards the wall injuring me very badly.”
Reshami’s mother is an elderly woman who has undergone some operations to improve her health.
“My mother is a heart patient yet they showed no mercy. She was praying when they came. In order to stop them, she came to speak and they started to assault her verbally and then physically,” she recalled the ordeal sobbing and struggling to catch her breath.
“They were two men and I recognized one of them, (Sonu Yadav). The other man was an SHO (as they claimed) but he wasn’t in a police uniform. I kept asking them, How can a police officer behave like this?'”
Recalling the horrifying incident as they assaulted her, she went on to say that one of them said, “Is ko leja karke ilaj karvayenge, phir room me band karke iske hosh thikane lagayenge”. (We will take her to a room and We will knock some sense into her).
“We had to run from there to save ourselves.”
“If the police act like this, who do we trust?” she questioned.
A relative of Reshami, Saddam said that they weren’t allowed to get Reshami’s treatment done, as she was severely injured after the incident. They had to hide in their neighbourhood as the family was very scared after the incident.
According to Reshami and her family, her son was falsely claimed as a criminal in an arms case a month after he came from Qatar (where he works). The family then approached SHO and eventually knocked at the doors of the High Court. A petition was filed with the signatures of many locals who also believe that Reshami’s son has nothing to do with two men who were named in an arms case and he was not present when the allegations were made against him.
Saddam said, “The case is still in court. How can they barge inside with no warrant?”
Explaining the case and allegations, Saddam said, “Her son, Urooj Khan, who has no prior criminal record was named in the case as a criminal. We requested an investigation into this and this was five-six months ago but nothing was done. We then approached the High Court and due to the new year and Christmas, the court hearing got delayed.”
Speaking about the assault, Saddam said, “After the assault, they called the police force and tried to intimidate and made sure nobody goes out of the house to get treatment done. Three of the women are very scared after the incident.
“They dragged our boy in a case without proof. According to the police, the two youngsters who were arrested had weapons with them, as stated in the FIR but there is no eye witness in the case.”
