PEOPLE EGGED ME ON TO KILL MUSLIM BOY, SAYS ACCUSED

NEWDELHI: “I was drunk. They told me to attack the boys because they are cow eaters.” This is what Palwal resident Ramesh told the police after his arrest for allegedly stabbing to death a 16-yearold Muslim boy and injuring his three brothers on a Mathurabound train on Thursday.

Ramesh was part of a mob that attacked the four brothers who were on their way back home to Haryana’s Ballabhgarh after Eid shopping at Sadar Bazar on Thursday evening.

Police said on Saturday Ramesh told them that he boarded the train from Ballabhgarh and saw some men fighting over seats. This quickly turned communal as the mob repeatedly called the brothers “anti-nationals” and “beef eaters”, threw their skull caps on the floor and taunted them with terms such as “mulla”.

Since he was drunk, he joined in, police quoted Ramesh as saying. “He said he heard the boys shouting for help and others calling them names. He said the m en had cornered the boys and were instigating the people to thrash them as they were cow eaters,” a police officer told Hindustan Times on condition of anonymity.