Teen victim of cow vigilantes was religious, visited Ayodhya Ram temple: CPI(M) leaders after meeting family

New Delhi: Aryan Mishra, the 19-year-old youth shot dead allegedly by cow vigilantes in a car chase in Faridabad, was "deeply religious" and had recently visited the Ram temple at Ayodhya, a CPI(M) delegation said after meeting the teenager's family. 

In a statement issued on Friday, the Communist Party of India (Marxist) said the delegation, which included party leaders Brinda Karat, Rajiv Kunwar, Shiv Prasad, Virinder Dangial, Vijay Jha and others, met the deceased's father Siyanand, mother Uma and brother Ajay. 

They said the Mishra family is poor with only one earning member.  Aryan was allegedly chased in a car and shot dead in Faridabad on August 23 by a group of five cow vigilantes who mistook him for a cattle smuggler, police had said.

Aryan studied in Class 12 and simultaneously training at a small company for social media branding.  "He was deeply religious and had recently visited Ayodhya temple and other temples. He was a keen bodybuilder and recently won a prize for weightlifting. His mother sometimes skipped meals to ensure her son could get the nutrition he needed," the CPI(M) said.

"She is deeply traumatised and had to be hospitalised because of frequent bouts of fainting. The family is in economic distress," the party said.

The team also met Aryan’s tutor who spoke about his determination to do well in his exams.   "The Mishra family had taken loans to pay for a long lease for the small two-room flat they live in Faridabad. When after a few months, they came to know the landlord’s family included criminals, they wished to leave but were unable to as the landlord said he was unable to return the money. In a way, they were trapped into staying on," the CPI(M) said.

They said that according to the Mishras, the role of the landlord’s family is dubious but the police are protecting them.  Aryan was preparing to sleep that night but his landlord called him at around 11 pm. Later, the landlord and his wife first informed the family of an “accident”, then said that he had been shot, the delegation said.

"Surprisingly, the police have made no effort to question the landlord and his wife and sons, one of whom is a known criminal as to why they had taken Aryan with them that night," they said.

The CPI(M) also alleged that an eyewitness to the crime, a woman who is a close friend of the landlord, deliberately gave wrong information to the police about people involved in the incident, naming some rival gang members and not the real murderers.

"The question raised by Aryan's family is why would she deliberately mislead the police? Is it to protect the gau rakshaks or is it to use the murder to implicate a rival gang?" they said.  The CPI(M) said the role of the police is "extremely dubious", and it is "unthinkable" that there was a car chase on the national highway for 30 km and without any intervention by the highway police.  They added that the family were told by police that the man who shot their son is a “nek aadmi” (good man) and their son was shot “by mistake”.  "What is the message being given? That they should compromise with the nek aadmi? They added main accused Anil Kaushik, the police-certified nek aadmi, is a member of the sarkar-recognised gau rakshak district committee and has been in close touch with police," the CPI(M) said.

"The police took the father to the thana where these men had been kept. According to the father, his son's killer fell at his feet and begged for forgiveness, saying it was a mistake. Again, is this not a form of pressure on the family?" they asked.

The CPI(M) further added that no BJP functionary or government official has met the victim's family.  The CPI(M) demanded financial compensation to the family, a government job for the victim's brother Ajay Mishra, action against the police for alleged connivance in protecting the accused and a court-monitored investigation.