42-yr-old stabs, kills mother for ‘practising witchcraft’

A 42-year-old man stabbed his mother to death in southwest Delhi’s Palam area on Wednesday morning.

Police said that the accused, Rajiv Sharma, believed that his mother practised witchcraft and so killed her.

Sharma, who works as an MTNL operator, was later arrested by the police from his home. The incident came to light after a neighbour made a PCR call and complained that he had heard Sharma’s mother, Premlata (65) scream for help. When a police team reached the spot, Premlata was lying bleeding on the ground and was unconscious. Sharma’s wife then helped police rush Premlata to a hospital, where she later succumbed during treatment.

Sharma did not try to flee and was arrested , police said.

“A call was received saying that a man had allegedly stabbed his mother. The accused was arrested from his residence. A case of murder has been registered and the weapon used in the crime has also been seized,” DCP southwest, Surender Kumar said.

During questioning, Sharma told the police that he was frustrated with his mother’s ‘witchcraft activities’ and her meeting with occultists, which had started to affect his children. He told the police that he had warned her several times to not practice black magic at home but she had refused to pay heed. He confessed that on Wednesday, he had an altercation with her on the topic and then stabbed her in a fit of rage.

“Sharma said that Premlata had started involving his children while practising black magic which he did not approve of. He also said that Premlata was mentally ill and refused to listen to him. She had started visiting occultists to learn tricks and random people visited her at home, which further angered Sharma. He said that she had been involved in these activities for the past four years,” an investigator told HT.

A village woman said she had asked Dar to flee since the army was in the village, but Dar refused. “I had asked the bikers to run away but Dar said no one will harm him because he had just cast his vote. He, in fact, showed his finger to the army personnel as well, but they were in no mood to listen,” the woman said.

Local residents say Dar was beaten up before being tied to the bonnet of the jeep. “After tying him up, they told us to pelt stones at him,’’ Meema, another woman said. A placard saying he was a stone pelter was hung around his neck and the jeep drove away around 11am.

Panic was beginning to sweep the village with reports reaching that an army jeep was on the move with a man tied on it.

The jeep shortly arrived, having snaked its way past the villages of Ganipora, Hayatpora and Sonpa. Najan was itself quiet with no reports of stone pelting. But the villagers were in ferment at the sight of a tied Dar.

Minutes after the jeep reached Najan, Dar’s brother Fayaz received a call from a local. “Save your brother. He might just die. He is on an army jeep tied up and the vehicle has now reached Najan,” recounted Fayaz.

This village was quiet till the jeep arrived. But after the vehicle left following a brief stopover, protests broke out with angry residents taking to the streets.

Polling for the by-poll under way in the village was discontinued. Thirty-seven votes had been cast till then.

Villagers say they pleaded with the soldiers to let Dar go. “One of the old men begged the soldiers to let the man off. When they did not listen, he requested them to at least loosen the ropes and let him drink water,” a resident said. The soldiers did not heed the old man’s plea.

Qurant Ul Ain, a seven-year-old class 3 student, ran home scared on seeing the jeep with Dar.

“I thought they were taking him to be killed. I ran immediately inside my house and didn’t step out for next two days,” he said. Because of elections, schools were closed and most children were in their courtyards when the jeep made its appearance.

This village too was quiet that day till the jeep arrived. “I had seen Dar on the jeep with my own eyes. Anyone with a weak heart would have died seeing what we saw,” a local tailor said.

Here too, residents were mortified seeing Dar tied to the jeep. “I thought they had tied a dead man,” recounted a woman who was grazing cattle. A class eight student said he ran on seeing the jeep. “I thought that I will be next,” he said.

The jeep finally drove into a Central Reserve Police Force camp. According to Dar, it was here he was untied from the jeep. He, however, was still bound by ropes.

Dar’s brother accompanied by the sarpanch and deputy-sarpanch of his Chil village reached the camp. Dar, they say, was kept tied to a tree inside the camp.

Finally, at about 7pm, he was left off, bringing to end an ordeal that caused international outrage and left the nation deeply divided.

A row had erupted over loud music being played during a procession to commemorate the birth anniversary of Rajput king Maharana Pratap.

Two people have died, scores injured and many houses have been burnt down in the tension that has flared in sporadic instances of rioting and arson.

The Sahai commission was scathing in its criticism of Dubey’s role during the 2013 violence.

After thoroughly scrutinising the role of 40 senior officers, Sahai wrote in his report, “I have come to the conclusion that excepting Subhash Chandra Dubey, all the aforesaid named officers made a strenuous attempt and took effective measures (in fact the effort of some was exemplary) to control communal riots”.

The former judge was responding to second and third terms of reference — instructions from the government — to identify officials and the roles they played in the episode. The government was at the time headed by Samajwadi Party’s Akhilesh Yadav.

A former bureaucrat said on Thursday that Dubey’s posting suggests chief minister Yogi Adityanath may not be getting correct advice. “This may be because of division of bureaucracy on political lines in the past few years,” said Surya Pratap Singh, who has held a number of positions in Uttar Pradesh bureaucracy.

The PWD, which maintains about 1,260km of roads in the city, has a wing to attend to people’s complaints about potholes and rough patches.

The department is working on a plan to reduce waterlogging and drains are expected to be cleaned by June 15.

The city’s roads are notorious for monsoon flooding because of silted, blocked drains that run alongside or beneath the streets. The government is often accused of not cleaning the drains.

New Delhi’s drainage system was built in 1976 and it can carry only 25mm of water an hour, making them inadequate when it rains all day.

Civil engineers designed the drains based on an estimated figure of how much the city will grow till 1981.

The owner of the vehicle, who was informed about the punctures by the driver just before the robbers attacked, said he could hear women’s cries for help on the phone.

“I kept saying, ‘hello, hello,’ but there was no response from other side. It made me suspicious,” he said, adding he informed the dead man’s nephew about the phone call.

He later informed police and gave them the location the driver had mentioned.

The Congress accused the Yogi Adityanath government of failing to contain “riot, arson, loot, murder and rape”

A team led by state Congress president Raj Babbar also visited the incident spot, around 100 km from Delhi.

BJP minister Suresh Khanna denied the charges.

“Crime rate cannot be zero in society. Police cannot be deployed everywhere,” he said.

“(But) unlike other regimes, our government will not shield or harbour criminals. We will nab the culprits...,” he added.

Sharma (the accused) said Premlata had started involving his children while practising black magic . He also said that Premlata was mentally ill. THE SAHAI COMMISSION WAS SCATHING IN ITS CRITICISM OF DUBEY’S ROLE IN 2013 RIOTS. ‘EXCEPTING DUBEY,

ALL OFFICERS MADE A STRENUOUS ATTEMPT TO CONTROL COMMUNAL RIOTS,’ SAID THE PANEL.