By Guest Author
Mohammad Qasim and Nikita Jain
With tired eyes that have not been able to shut this past week, Shaheen Rangrez, the 20-year-old, who is the sister of one of the accused in the Uttam Nagar murder case addressed the media, giving her side of the story.
Since the death of 26-year-old Tarun Butolia, the environment has become tense and communal, with various Hindu right-wing groups threatening the Muslims in the locality.
The reason for such hostilities is due to the clash that led to Butolia’s death. On 4 March, as Hindus all over the country celebrated Holi, in narrow lanes of Uttam Nagar a conflict arose.
Narratives started coming in with Hindu right wing IT cells taking the opportunity to not only spread disinformation in the streets, leading to unrest.
While the victim’s family has given their version, for the first time, Rangrez addressed the media. She said that if they were not Muslim, the situation would not have escalated to this level.
“This was not a Hindu-Muslim issue. This was an issue of two neighbours, who already had tensions with each other. Bajrang Dal gave it a Hindu–Muslim colour,” she said, adding that the victim Tarun belonged to Bajrang Dal itself.
Different versions of events
While the death of the youth is tragic, Rangrez said, the series of events are false.
This story was originally published in maktoobmedia.com. Read the full story here.