'Heated rod inserted, sprinkled water to revive, then beaten again': Chilling details of brutal lynching of Bihar man

Mohammad Athar Hussain with his family. (Image: X)

Mohammad Athar Hussain, a cloth vendor, was caught by a group of villagers who allegedly mistook him for a thief and brutally assaulted him on the night of December 5 in Bihar.

After struggling for his life for six days, he succumbed to his injuries early on December 12 morning.

His wife, Shabnam Parveen, last saw Hussain on November 28, when he left home, in Gagan Diwan village of Bihar Sharif district, headed 45 km away to Nawada. The family lived in Nawada’s Barui until recently, and Hussain felt comfortable in those areas, finding eager customers in the remote villages around.

The family got to know about what happened on December 6 when his brother, Mohammad Chand Hussain, saw a video of a severely injured man. An alarmed Chand thought he looked like Hussain, and showed the video to Parveen.

The family immediately rushed to Nawada. “He was admitted to Nawada Sadar Hospital, and barely recognisable,” according to one of the victim's brothers.

They spoke to Hussain to piece together what had happened that day. He said he had just finished his daily rounds and was near Bhattapur village in the evening when his bicycle suffered a puncture. Seeing a group of men sitting around a fire, Hussain approached them and enquired if there was a puncture repair shop nearby, according to an Indian Express report.

According to Chand, the men who were drunk asked him his name and what he did, and then, out of the blue, started frisking him. According to Hussain, one of them took all the money he was carrying and when he resisted, they started beating him.

Narrating his ordeal in the hospital, Hussain told the family that he was first beaten with one of the logs in the fire, then dragged and stripped naked in a room with his hands and legs tied. The accused then inserted a heated iron rod into his rectum, cut his ears with pliers, crushed his fingers and fractured his head.

“Every time he lost consciousness, they sprinkled water to wake him up and continued the beating. When they thought he could take no more, they placed jewellery around his body to frame him as a thief,” Chand said, adding that if Hussain’s intention was that, he would have had other cases lodged against him in the years he had been working in the area, according to Indian Express.

The family also claimed that he was given electric shocks in his private parts.

In a video statement before his death, Hussain said he was beaten up by a mob of 20-25 men, including minors. “They began beating him around 7 pm and tortured him till 2 am,” Chand said. Police records show they arrived around 2.30 am, and found Hussain in a critical condition.

An FIR was lodged at the Roh Police Station against 25 people, 10-15 of them unidentified. Nine people have been arrested so far, under charges of unlawful assembly and rioting, causing grievous hurt by use of dangerous means, and abetment and common intention, with murder charges added after Hussain succumbed to his injuries. Two people have been detained.

All the nine arrested are Yadavs, belonging to Bhatta village. Asked about the case, police said the investigation is ongoing, including into the motive and circumstances.

according to IE, Chand says they want the harshest punishment for the accused, and support for the family. “Nothing will bring my brother back, but without long-term support, his family will be forced onto the streets.”