‘Taken where?’: How rumours consumed a sole breadwinner; kin recall last moments of Hindu worker lynched in Bangladesh

DEHRADUN: Late on Dec 18, when a co-worker called Apu Chandra Das to say that his elder brother had been taken by a mob, the 22-year-old didn't immediately understand. "Taken where?" he asked. Dipu was lynched, hung from a tree, and burned, allegedly for a blasphemous post, a charge his brother denies, and investigators seem to concur. "Not even animals are treated the way a violent mob of 140 pounced on my brother," Apu told TOI.

But by the time the full story reached him, 28-years-old Dipu Chandra Das - a Hindu garment factory worker, husband, father of a one-year-old, and the sole breadwinner for a family of eight - had been lynched. The video of his body on fire was widely circulated on social media.


"What happened to my brother is beyond imagination," Apu told TOI, over the phone from Mymensingh in Bangladesh. "Not even animals are treated the way a violent mob of around 140 people pounced on my brother."

Four days have passed since the killing. Police have made arrests. Rapid Action Battalion (RAB), the country's elite counter-terrorism agency, said they found no evidence to support the allegation that Dipu posted any blasphemous content online - the rumour that triggered the attack. And yet, for Dipu's family, there is no closure, no respite. But more than that, they are scared.

Dipu worked at Pioneer Knitwears (BD) Ltd, a garment factory in Bhaluka area of Mymensingh. On the night of Dec 18, around 9pm, a mob arrived at the factory. Apu was told that they dragged Dipu out and thrashed him with bamboo sticks, fists and kicks until he died. His body was then taken along the road to Jamirdia square, where they hung him from a tree and set the body ablaze in full public view.

Police reached later, by which time a crowd had surrounded the burning body. "They had to break through the mob to even retrieve him," Apu said. The body was taken to a hospital morgue and returned to the family which lodged a complaint next day.

But even then, the family says, they were not allowed dignity. "A group of people didn't allow the family to get the last glimpse of my brother before his cremation," Apu said. "We were forced to take the body immediately to the cremation ground for his last rites. My elderly parents are completely heartbroken."

The mob accused Dipu of insulting Islam in a social media post. Apu said his brother was incapable of such a thing: "Dipu could never have posted anything objectionable... he always respected all religions."

This claim is now supported by RAB, which is investigating the case. A senior RAB official confirmed that "no evidence of any such post by Dipu on social media" was found.

The agency is also probing the possibility that misinformation was deliberately circulated to incite communal violence.

Twelve people have so far been arrested. On Monday, they were produced before a local court, which granted police a three-day remand to question them. More arrests are likely, officers said, as digital evidence is being analysed and the network behind the false content is being traced.

Apu himself works as a casual labourer and has no fixed income. The complaint in the case was formally filed by him on Dec 19 at Bhaluka Model police station, the day after the violence.

He said the authorities have assured him justice will be served, but admits that the violence, and the silence that followed from many in their community, has left him shaken.

"After what we saw... after how easily a mob could do this... how can we believe that justice will be done? We don't even know how to live anymore," he said.

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