Arrested for murder of parents in Bengal: ‘Rohingya sympathiser', he saw parents as ‘not religious enough'
On May 28, Kabir, a graduate of Jadavpur University, allegedly killed his parents Haji Mustafizur Rahman, 65, and his wife Mumtaz Begum, 56, in Memari town's Kashiara More area. Then he fled to the Bongaon town – some 107 km away — where he allegedly used a machete to attack staff members of an orphanage. He was arrested on May 29 and is currently in judicial custody at Presidency jail.
Kabir, whose father owned a thriving gift shop in Memari and whose family held significant agricultural land, completed his civil engineering degree at Jadavpur University in 2012 and worked in Mumbai, Delhi, and Noida.
According to investigators, it was his divorce about six years ago that triggered a shift in his personality, making him increasingly reserved and cut off from the world. Somewhere along the line, he also lost his job.
'Earlier this year, he vanished for several months. His father eventually traced him to Himachal Pradesh and brought him back to Memari,' one investigator said.
The change in him began manifesting in other forms too: over the next few months, Kabir allegedly immersed himself in religious texts, with investigators claiming that he had begun to browse 'jihadi literature'.
His laptop, mobile, and personal effects are currently under intense scrutiny. It was during this time that he had begun to express dissatisfaction with what he perceived as a lack of religiosity in his parents.
'He wanted his parents to see Jannat [heaven],' another officer said.
Soon, he allegedly began to plot their killings. On May 28, he executed his plan — first allegedly slitting his father Mustafizul's wrists and then, when his mother woke up to his screams, killing her too.
Kabir allegedly travelled to Ranaghat and a train to Bongaon – a place, according to investigators, located six kilometres from the Indo-Bangladesh border.
Here, however, his plan went awry, with his attack on four others at a local orphanage leading to his arrest.
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'There were some instances initially where police personnel in plain clothes beat up migrants in the name of verification. They extorted money from them. Employers left them to fend for themselves. It created a sense of fear, causing the exodus,' says the contractor, who did not wish to be identified. The police, however, vehemently deny the allegations of physical abuse and extortion. Community voices Ainul Sekh, in his 50s, who stays in a single room with his wife and two adult children in Sector 15, says he works as a security guard at a college in Sector 14, but is scared to commute to work. His family had moved to Gurugram in 2012 in search of work and better education for the children. He says purported videos of migrant workers being beaten up by the police have filled him with fear. 'I don't know whether those videos are fake or real, but I'm scared. My son works as a delivery boy. For the past two days, we have told him not to leave the house.' Sekh says they have all the required documents to prove that they are citizens of India. 'There are no jobs in West Bengal. Can't we work in our own country?' says Beauty Bibi, his wife, who works as a domestic help. Barsha, in his 40s, who runs a meat shop in Chakkarpur's machhi mandi (fish market), says police teams had come to the area to verify documents, but did not pick up anyone. 'Most Bengalis in Gali No. 5 are Hindus, so they have nothing to fear,' he says. Though the drive has reportedly de-escalated over the past few days and some holding centres are empty, it has drawn criticism on a few counts. Congress MLA from Nuh and former Haryana Transport Minister Aftab Ahmed says the 'inhuman treatment' meted out to Bengali-speaking people from West Bengal and Assam, mostly Muslims, is 'shameful'. He alleges that people employed in Gurugram for years and engaged in menial jobs were beaten up and packed into vehicles like animals in order to be taken away to detention centres. He claims that in a few cases, including one in Faridabad's Ankhir, the police demanded money from some migrant workers in exchange for their release. 'Earlier, Muslims were not allowed to offer Friday prayers in Gurugram. Now, the local police are doing what Raj Thackeray's party (Maharashtra Navnirman Sena) is doing to Hindi-speaking Indian citizens in Maharashtra,' he says. Ahmed clarifies that he is not against the verification drive, but says an environment of fear is being created by the Haryana government to force migrants out of the State. The State's Trade Union Council in a memorandum to the Deputy Commissioner of Gurugram said picking up Bengal-speaking people in the name of verification, 'collecting money from them, keeping their documents in custody, and not giving any kind of information to their family members' are actions that constitute a blatant violation of human rights. In a press release, it stated, 'We have also come to know that most of the people who come in plain clothes to pick up people arrive in vehicles without registered number plates. Are they police personnel or someone else? This is a matter of serious concern. As a result, a large number of poor labourers are migrating out of fear.' Idrish Ali, in his late 50s, a tea stall owner in Carterpuri village, says, 'Hundreds of families are waiting for their monthly wages to be cleared by the first week of August before they too leave. The city might see another wave of exodus soon.' Ali, who came to Gurugram from West Bengal in 1998 in search of a better life, says, 'My brother has just reached Bengal.' For him, Gurugram is home. Edited by Sunalini Mathew
