#GoodNews: How This Karnataka Cop Saved 2 Men From Being Lynched
While the police in Bidar managed to save 4 men from the mob, Mohammed Azam, a techie was lynched to death.
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Armed with only lathis, around ten policemen were up against a crowd of over 2000 people, many who were seething with rage. Police constable Mallikarjun, who was deployed in Bidar last Friday, 13 July, recounts how his colleagues and him attempted to pacify the bloodthirsty crowd, who were convinced that they had cornered five child abductors.
Mallikarjun narrates, "There were at least 2,500 people gathered near the car. Some of them were angry, hurling abuses and lynching a group of men. My first instinct was to try to pacify the mob. All our officers were horrified. We had never seen anything like it," says the constable.
And while the police in Bidar managed to save four of the men from the mob, Mohammed Azam, a 32-year-old Hyderabad techie was lynched to death.
While the five men drove away in their car, the message that there were child abductors on the prowl had already been passed on, with Bootakula residents informing their friends in the adjacent village of Murki.
People had set up road blocks to stop the red car which Azam and his relatives were travelling in. The car spun out of control, overturning near the bridge. It was then the police arrived.
The policemen, including the Circle Inspector, attempted to pacify the mob. People in the crowd allegedly told the police that Azam and his friends were child abductors and that they had machetes and rifles in the trunk of their car.
It was when the police were trying to disperse one section of the mob that a few others tied a rope around Azam's neck and dragged him out of the car.
"That's when the lynching began. People were dragging him (Azam) by the rope and the mob began hurling stones and hitting him with cricket wickets as he was being dragged. On the other side, people began dragging the others from the car and began hurling stones at them," he recalls.
Mallikarjun says that the frenzied mob began lynching and beating Mohammed Salman, Salham Al-Kuwaisi, Noor Mohammed and Afroz after dragging them out of the car. It was then Noor managed to escape, running for his life.
Mallikarjun then picked up a broken lathi and overtook the mob. He says he threatened to lathicharge the mob and managed to stop them from advancing. A man was passing by on a bike and constable Mallikarjun sent Noor Mohammed with the rider.
“I didn’t know how long before the people would become mad and begin attacking the man. I had to do something or they would end up killing him like the other one (Azam). When the man on the bike stopped I felt like there is a god somewhere. It was the only way to ensure that he got away from the mob. The man on the bike was also cooperative and dropped off Noor to his relative's place," he said.
Mallikarjun then returned to provide cover for Salham, who was getting beaten up. He says that he managed to cover Salham from the mob for around 30 minutes, until the Deputy SP of Bidar arrived on the spot. But the angry crowd would not let up.
Mallikarjun collapsed on the ground immediately. His fellow officers rushed to his aide. An ambulance had arrived by then, which ferried all the injured to the government hospital.
"My knee cap is broken. The doctors said that they will be able to tell if I can walk in two weeks. I have bruises on my arms, legs and back. I wish I never see anything like this again in my life. It was unimaginable. It was inhuman. It was beyond anything I had imagined. I never knew people from a small village like mine could be driven to such violence," says the constable, who calls Murki home.
Click here for the complete list of mob lynchings since 2015
(This article was first published on The News Minute and has been republished with permission.)