After a Delhi youth was allegedly stabbed and killed by the family members of the girl he was in love with, right-wing groups like the VHP and Bajrang Dal held demonstrations demanding justice for the lover

Around 12 in the afternoon of 3 December, Sakina Begum, a domestic house help working in Vishnu Garden received a phone call from a neighbour advising her to return home as soon as possible. The call was prompted because of a procession march being organised by the Vishwa Hindu Parishad and Bajrang Dal. While the procession was organised to protest the stabbing of Dablu Singh also known as Badal, it created an atmosphere of fear in the predominantly Muslim neighbourhood of Raghubir Nagar. The Delhi police also beefed-up security in the area. 

The procession was organised by the Vishwa Hindu Parishad and the Bajrang Dal to demand justice for 26-year-old Dablu Singh also known as Badal. According to his family and right-wing organizations, he was stabbed to death by family members of the girl he was in love with for the past nine months. The girl in question belongs to the Muslim community and her brothers and uncle are prime accuseds in the killing.

Around 1:00 PM hundreds of people associated with right-wing groups started gathering near T.C camp area chanting the Hanuman Chalisa, slogans were also raised at the gathering, “Jaikara veer bajrangi har har Mahadev”, “Jai Shri Ram”, “Bharat Mata ki Jai Ho”, Gau Mata ki jai ho”, “Ganga Mata ki jai ho”, “Ram Janmabhoomi ki Jai ho”, “Krishna Janmabhoomi ki Jai ho”, “Gau Hatya band ho”, “Dharmatram band ho” and “Bharat akhand ho”.

Badal’s father, Chandresh Chouhan, a vegetable seller was asked to come up on the jeep and tell people about his son. Chouhan thanked people who had come and asked for justice for his son while also appealing for justice for those people, who were killed due to similar motivations. After his speech, the high voltage procession came to an end.

Vikas Babbar, who claims to be a BJP worker and one of the organizers of the procession while talking to Patriot said, “The boy and girl were in love for a long time and they had eloped earlier. The girl’s family had lodged a complaint, but when Badal asked the girl’s family for her hand in marriage, he was asked to convert”.

Mukesh Sharma, of Vishwa Hindu Parishad said, “This is time to stand with lovers, there is no one who stands with Hindus and because of vote bank politics Hindus are fighting with each other, whatever we are doing here is to get justice for Badal. We are following the law and we have organized this procession in discipline”.

While thanking the people who had joined the procession he used the opportunity to target “seculars” saying “Where are those seculars, who say love has no religion, why they are silent. A Hindu boy was killed, just because he loved a Muslim girl, loving someone is not a crime, this is not the first time someone is killed for loving someone from another community, many cases go unreported, Hindus are always blamed for lynching, why no one discusses killings of Hindus. If one Hindu boy refuses to convert, and he chooses to remain a Hindu, he is killed brutally”. 

Talking with Badal’s father, Mukesh Sharma also accused him of voting for freebies saying that “If you had voted for us, they wouldn’t have been able to do this. In future, they will take your daughters and mothers, but we will be with you”.

Talking to Patriot Badal’s father Chandresh Chouhan, lamented that Dablu was his younger son and the only educated member of the family, he used to work as butcher and it was Tuesday, his week off, when around half of the dozen men stabbed his son in T.C camp area. 

 Badal was lucky enough to reach Guru Gobind Singh Hospital in wounded condition, but after two hours he succumbed to his injuries. When asked about Badal’s love affair he said “From the last nine months his son and girl named Laddli, who lives near to his house were in a relationship, Laddli’s family is from West Bengal and she is Muslim, my son asked girl’s family for marriage, but girl’s family has asked him to convert into Islam. He was the only one to take care of me in old age”.

Badal’s friend Hemant said, “both Badal and Laddli were not talking with each other for the last many months, Laddli’s family had taken her to their native village in West Bengal, but Badal was uploading her photos on social media, which provoked the girl’s family”.

He also said I have never thought that this issue would go this far and asked for justice for his friend.

According to Badal’s family, Chand and Salim Laddli’s cousin and brother are the main masterminds behind the killing.

After three days of procession on 7 December, VHP and Bajrang Dal organized Hanuman Chalisa Chanting program outside the residence of the deceased, hundreds of people associated with the right wing organization gathered here. 

Bharat Batra, a functionary of Bajrang Dal, while giving speech said Badal was a brave boy, who opposed conversion. In past those who were coward embraced Islam, Bajrang Dal is always blamed as communal by seculars but, it is an organization which is serving people for good cause. In high pitch he shouted “we will fight and die for Hindutva”.

He urged Delhi government to bring Anti Conversion Law like Uttar Pradesh via Delhi assembly and asked Delhi Government to stop funding conversion factories.  

However, the procession soon took a political colour with members of the VHP and Bajrang Dal demanding an anti-conversion law for the capital similar to the one passed in Uttar Pradesh. 

They also said they will launch an anti-conversion campaign in the national capital from 21 December to 31 December. In this campaign, right wing organizations will build pressure on administration to take hard steps to stop conversion.

In February 2018, a similar incident had rocked Raghubir Nagar area, where a 23 year-old Ankit Saxena was lynched by the family members of the girl, who was from Muslim community. 

Ankit, a professional photographer, was killed in broad daylight, while he was with his mother.    

This issue was going to take a communal turn, but Ankit’s father, Yashpal Saxena, had set a precedent by denying any communal angle in this case.

Currently the matter of Badal’s murder is under investigation and police have made several arrests. 

(Cover: A procession by VHP and Bajrang Dal demanding justice for the alleged stabbing of Badal was organised in the Raghubir Nagar area of Delhi on 3 December )