Two Years Ago, A Hindu Dentist Was Murdered Near Dasna Temple In Headlines Now; His Family Lives In Perpetual Fear Today

A recent incident in Uttar Pradesh’s Ghaziabad district, where a video shows a 14-year-old boy being beaten up by some men in a Hindu temple, has received a lot of attention of the media, opposition parties and Bollywood personalities who routinely comment on political and social events.

This is because the boy is a Muslim and the men beating him are Hindus, identified as seva volunteers at the temple.

The case has been presented by a section of the media as a ‘hate crime’ even though temple authorities have denied this narrative. They say the boy had come to the temple for theft and not for drinking water as he has claimed.

The incident has been reported from Dasna area, where more than 90 percent of the population is Muslim.

The temple mahant, Yati Narsinghanand Saraswati, has told the media that the claim that the boy had come 500 metres inside the temple to drink water is false as there is a public handpump right at the entrance of the temple on the road.

The temple, in fact, has a board hanging at the entrance that controversially says entry of Muslims is prohibited inside it. “Ye mandir Hinduon ka pavitra sthal hai, yahan Musalmanon ka pravesh varjit hai,” says the board.

Amid criticism of the beating incident, of which the national child commission has also taken cognisance, Saraswati has been giving a spate of interviews to publications to present his side of the story.

He has said that Dasna is a communal hotbed and generally unsafe for its tiny Hindu population. He has further said that the incident of thrashing of the boy should be seen in the backdrop of various thefts and murders of Hindus in the area, perpetrated by Muslims.

A major case he has been citing is that of ‘Dr BS Tomar’.

This report brings you details of the forgotten case that shook Dasna two years ago. The murder happened a few metres away from Yati Narsinghanand Saraswati’s temple.

Balbir Singh Tomar, a 50-year-old dentist who ran a clinic near the temple, was shot dead on the evening of 20 July, 2019.

Tomar was also a mandal president of the Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP). His daughter Arti told Swarajya that Tomar was, in fact, the founder of the party’s unit in Dasna.

A group of bike-borne men shot him thrice – on the forehead, near his waist and in the leg – from point blank range. Arti’s marriage was scheduled some weeks later.

The reason behind the killing was Tomar’s vocal support for Hindu voices and concerns, says Arti.

The area was tensed as a few days earlier, a minor Muslim girl had eloped with a minor Hindu boy.

As per Arti, the local police, acting under pressure of the majority Muslims, were picking up ‘innocent’ Hindu youths and putting them behind bars without an arrest warrant. “Muslims were really angry at a Hindu boy taking their girl. The police gave in to their pressure,” says Arti.

Several Hindus met Tomar at his clinic and appealed to him to speak to the police on their behalf to spare innocents, says Arti.

One evening after work, Tomar went to the police station with a group of Hindus and spoke to the police. This, she says, became a trigger for the murder.

The police charged a total of nine men for the crime. The arrests were made over several months. While all were Muslims, one of them was a member of All India Majlis-e-Ittehadul Muslimeen (AIMIM) political party.

The accused, Haji Arif Muzim, is husband of Hajjan Hansar, who had won the 2017 local body elections on an AIMIM ticket. As per Arti, Tomar’s visit to the police to speak for Hindus was ‘exploited’ by local rival political leaders to eliminate him.

Swarajya spoke to a senior police officer, who handled the case at that time. He requested not to be named. The officer said that a worker of the Samajwadi Party was arrested in the case too, though he could not recall his name.

The first information report (FIR) was filed on the same day. It named three people as suspects: two identified as Salman alias Dagga and Shahrukh, and an unidentified accomplice.

Others were accused of either conspiracy or shielding the killers.

Arti says six of those chargesheeted are out on bail. Bail application of the key accused, Salman, is pending in Allahabad high court, she says.

“We live in perpetual fear. What if he comes out too,” she says.

The officer, who has since been transferred to another area, told Swarajya that the streets around Narsinghanand Saraswati’s temple is about the only Hindu-populated area in Dasna. “If he [Saraswati] leaves, there will be a Hindu exodus out of the area. That’s certain,” the officer said.

“The mahant is quite vocal. In fact, we once booked him on the charges of promoting enmity between groups based on a complaint by some local Muslims. But it’s true that he is the one the local Hindu residents rely on for a sense of safety,” the officer said.

The murder shattered the Tomar family. Three years earlier, Tomar’s only son, 25, had passed away due to an illness. Balbir Tomar is survived by his wife, three (married) daughters, his son’s wife and the couple’s two children. The family lives in Hapur, about half-an-hour road journey from the clinic in Dasna. The clinic is run by a local Muslim resident now.

Arti says the family received no compensation from the state government. However, the state BJP chief Swatantra Dev Singh met the aggrieved family and extended a help of Rs 10 lakh. “That was the only help we received. Some part of it was used for my wedding. A major portion has been spent on the ongoing court case,” says Arti.

“Our family has no men left. None of us women are working. My bhabhi’s two sons are very young. When they move to higher classes, affording their fees would be very tough for us.”

Arti says several social organisations visited the family after the murder, assuring support in the legal fight as well as monetary help. All promises proved to be lip-service. “After the initial furore, they did not even answer our calls. My father’s sacrifice is but forgotten.”

Arti says the biggest setback has been the lack of eyewitnesses to the case. “A lot of people saw the murder. It happened around 8 pm when the market was open. None of them however have come forward to be an eyewitness. They fear for their lives,” she says.