Avaneesh’s mother with the picture of her 22-year-old son at her house in Gola town on Thursday. (Express Photo by Vishal Srivastav) Avaneesh’s mother with the picture of her 22-year-old son at her house in Gola town on Thursday. (Express Photo by Vishal Srivastav)

It was to be a night out at the fair. But all the 13-year-old remembers is being stripped, gagged and beaten with bamboo sticks, and his neighbour being thrashed to death at the fair in Gola town of Lakhimpur Kheri district.

Avaneesh, 22, was killed allegedly by a shopkeeper and his associates who accused him of stealing watches from a stall at Bhootnath Mela. Prasoon Baretha, the 13-year-old complainant, sustained injuries.

“There was no part of his (Avaneesh) body without injuries. I asked him to get up and go home. He said he couldn’t, then he fell unconscious. I walked to the police station in my underwear. They had removed all our clothes,” said Prasoon, a Class IX student at PD Bharti Inter-College in Mohammadi town.

“The police arrived and carried Avaneesh to hospital, where he was declared dead. I returned to the police station where the inspector asked someone to buy a T-shirt for me,” he adds.

Avaneesh and Prasoon, both Dalits from Nakeda village in Mohammadi area, about 40 km from Gola, had left their village on Monday to visit the Bhootnath Mela, where lakhs gather near a Shiva temple in the month of Shravan. Prasoon says they visited the temple and walked around the fair before Avaneesh told him around 3 am that he wanted to buy a wrist watch.

“He took a wrist watch from one shop and kept it in his pocket. Then he took out his wallet to pay the shopkeeper Rs 50, but the shopkeeper snatched his wallet and mobile phone. Avaneesh picked up the shopkeeper’s mobile phone. The shopkeeper was joined by another, and they started beating him with bamboo. They were joined by four others who looked like shopkeepers. They also hit me. They gagged us with out clothes so we would not shout,” says Prasoon, showing injury marks on his back and legs.

“One of them asked Avaneesh what his caste is. He said Pasi, and they beat him even harder,” he says, adding “There were no policemen there.”

Circle Officer Anurag Darshan, who is investigating the case, said there were around 5 lakh people at the fair that day. “The shopkeepers accused him of stealing a wrist watch. They carried him to a secluded place nearby and hit him with bamboo sticks. The police were at some distance and could not see them,” said Darshan, adding that he is yet to see the postmortem report.

“The assailants did not know the victim. The dispute did not start because of the victim’s caste. The killing initially appears to have been the result of shopkeepers trying to mete out mob justice,” said the circle officer.

Police have arrested two persons, Pushpendra Singh and Sandeep Verma, both shopkeepers who allegedly started the dispute. Darshan said four others are absconding.

An FIR has been lodged, but the charges do not include IPC 302 as, according to the police, there was no intention to murder.

Pushpendra’s mother Baby Singh said, “My son was not involved in the assault. It was the other shopkeepers. He is only 18 years old.” His neighbour Gaurav Tiwari said Pushpendra had never been involved in any fight earlier.

Most of the shopkeepers at the fair said they were not there at the time of the incident. One of them said he got to know about the incident only in the morning. “It was raining. The body was wet and covered in mud. Most of us close our shops by 12 am, so we were not there,” he said.

In Avaneesh’s village, local resident Sushil Awasthi says the youth was never involved in any theft and was “very sincere”.

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Avaneesh’s family members say he was only 18, and that they had got his age increased in his Aadhaar card so that he could work. He was employed with a caterer in Delhi and had returned from the capital only on July 20.

“He used to earn Rs 700 to Rs 1,000 a day. His employer trusted him with lakhs of rupees. He never stole. When he came home, he brought Rs 20,000 for the family,” says his brother Susheel Kumar. The family owns 2 bigha land and lives in two thatched huts on the outskirts of the village. The family has been visited by local Congress leader Sanjay Sharma and BSP candidate Daud Ahmad.

Avaneesh’s eldest brother Lalta Prasad says the police have lodged a case under less stringent sections under pressure from the accused.

“We don’t know what exactly happened. He was beaten mercilessly. His clothes are covered in blood. We are poor people. Police will not tell us anything,” says Prasad.

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