Shaheed Nagar murder: Family denies communal angle to incident

The family members of 65-year-old Singhasan Yadav who murdered, allegedly by four neighbours, have ruled out any communal angle to the incident. Members of a Hindu outfit had come to the area on the day of the murder and tried to give it a communal colour, ahead of UP assembly elections which are scheduled in Ghaziabad for February 11.

The man, who hails from Gorakhpur, was murdered in his residence at Shaheed Nagar, a Muslim-dominated locality near Delhi-Ghaziabad border in Sahibabad.

“We don’t view it as a communal outburst against my father. It is a case of murder that was done in retaliation after an altercation. We have been living here for several decades now. The young men have been our neighbours and attacked after they had an altercation with my father, who objected to their foul language,” Madan Yadav, son of the victim, said.

The family resides in a flat in C-block of Shaheed Nagar. The victim operated a milk dairy and had been a worker of the Samajwadi Party for the last 30 years. The altercation between the victim and his neighbours took place around 9pm on January 25.

“He had been active with party work and used to go as a worker and supporter whenever called. On the day of the incident, he had advised neighbours not to abuse or use foul language with women. This led to an altercation and my father slapped the men, who happened to belong to a different community. They also slapped my father,” Madan said.

It was around 1.30am when Anas, Asif and Gullu along with another unidentified man allegedly barged into the victim’s house and attacked him with knives and inflicted multiple blows. He later died while undergoing treatment at GTB Hospital in Delhi.

Following a complaint from the family, the police lodged an FIR for murder, house trespassing and criminal intimidation against Gullu, Asif, Anas and an unidentified man at Sahibabad police station. A large contingent of police personnel was also deployed in the area.

One of the accused, Anas, was later arrested by the police after the incident.

“We are trying to trace the other accused persons and teams are searching for them. Police personnel are still deployed in the locality but there is no issue of any communal tension,” said Anup Singh, circle officer (Sahibabad).

“The accused and their families have fled and there is no one in their house. We want them arrested and punished for the crime,” Madan said.