Tripura mob lynching victim Zahid mentioned as ‘criminal’ by govt insurance company

Shama Parvin (37) has received a letter on Friday. The letter has been sent by the Muzaffarnagar branch of the Oriental Insurance Company. Shama Parvin is the wife of Zahid who was allegedly beaten to death by a mob over the rumour of child-theft. She is still observing a period of mourning. Shama Parvin has still not been able to grasp why and how her husband was killed. She has now suffered another deep shock.

The letter she has received from the insurance company mentions that the deceased was killed by the public because at that time the deceased was involved in the crime of attempting to kidnap. Therefore, under Mukhyamantri Kisan Sarvhit Bima Yojana, the person is understood to be involved in a criminal conspiracy at the time of murder. So the claim is not determined, the correspondence hence is closed.”

The deceased Zahid had 2 bighas of land, and under Uttar Pradesh Sarvajit Kisan Bima Yojana, after the death of the farmer due to accident or murder, his family gets compensation of ₹5 lakh. Zahid has three children.

His family had applied for compensation under Uttar Pradesh Sarvahit Kisan Bima Yojana and has received this response.

The Oriental Insurance is a a public sector general insurance company of India.

Tripura police investigator Jugal Kishore, who has been investigating the case of Zahid’s murder, said, "This is absolutely incorrect. We have thoroughly investigated. Two persons have been arrested in this case. Zahid used to work as a street hawker here. There is no proof of his involvement in any crime. The insurance company wanted us to tell the details. We sent them in writing that Zahid was not a ciminal.”

Zahid’s family has not received any government aid. His family applied for compensation under this insurance scheme. It was examined by the local tehsil. The Sambhalkhera auditor Amit Sharma studied it and when the claim was found correct, the tahsildar recommended it and the entire correspondence was sent to the insurance company.

Four months have passed since Zahid died and now his wife has received this letter when only 15 days of the mourning period are left. Zahid’s 68-years old mother Shamseeda Bano laments, “ Hang me, if you find a single report against my son in any police station of this country. They should have clearly told us that they will not help us, why did they cast a slur on our name? ´

Muzaffarnagar's Advocate Rao Laik says, "The insurance company will have to respond to this. We will drag the company to court. What can be more audacious than this! It’s absolutely shameful. Zahid has been proved a farmer in the enquiry conducted by the Tehsildar and he has no criminal case registered against him anywhere.”

On June 28, in Sidhai Mohanpur area of Tripura, Zahid who sold goods as a street hawker and his two friends were lynched by a mob over a rumour of child-theft. His friends were seriously injured. Zahid was beaten by the mob inside a police station. Later, a CRPF commando saved his friends’ lives. This rumour was spread through WhatsApp messages. After this shocking incident, many youths from Zahid’s village Sambhalhera, stopped going out of their village to sell their goods as hawkers.

There is a strong resentment in Zahid’s village on this letter. His brother Javed says, “we can understand that the government doesn’t want to help us. But why are they rubbing salt on our wounds! Why are they falsely accusing a dead man?”

The officials of the insurance company are quiet on this and are avoiding to respond. Premchand, who had come to village to enquire and confirm the details of Zahid and his family says “I had submitted my report. All this has been done by the officials. We did not go to Tripura to investigate and wrote the report on the basis of the FIR. I can’t say anything about this.”

Naresh Tank, an official of the insurance company also avoided responding on the matter and said, “ I have no information about this case. Some matters are determined on a much higher level.”

56-years old Sabir of Sambhalhera village clearly says, “ This all is happening only because Zahid was a Muslim.”

It is important to note here that even the police had not mentioned Zahid as a criminal in the FIR.

Oriental Insurance was established in 1947 and the Uttar Pradesh government seems to be quite generous and kind to this company. This company also gives crop insurance to farmers, and all the work related to crop insurance has also been entrusted to it by the government. Moolchand, the insurance officer of Muzaffarnagar who has issued this letter to Zahid’s wife, has earlier been accused of communal discrimination by the farmers. He refused talking about the matter.

According to Milapchand, manager of the main branch of the company in Dehradun, the insurance company does its job very fairly and this is a serious complaint against the company. The insurance company always conducts investigation into a claim but without any criminal history, it can not call anyone criminal or offender. “We will investigate why this was done,” He said.