First Death In Madhya Pradesh Communal Clash Reported After 8 Days

The first death has been reported in the April 10 communal violence during a Ram Navami procession in Madhya Pradesh's Khargone, eight days on.

Late last night, the family of Ibris Khan identified his body at the morgue of the MY hospital in Indore, around 120 km from Khargone. The family has alleged that the police tried to hide the death.

The police claim that the body was in Indore as there were no freezer facilities in Khargone.

The 30-year-old had been missing since the April 10 violence and his family had been searching for him.

According to the local police, Ibris Khan was murdered by seven-eight men on the night of the clashes.

"An unidentified body was found the next day (April 11) of communal violence in the Anand Nagar area of Khargone," senior Khargone police officer Rohit Kashwani told reporters.

"Ibris died of a head injury. His body was identified by his family yesterday," he said.

A murder case was filed four days later, late on April 14.

Khan's body was kept in a freezer at Indore's MY Hospital.

His family was taken to the hospital on Sunday night and that was when the body was identified as that of the missing man.

The body was handed over to the family and brought to Khargone early today.

Ibris Khan was a local municipality employee in Khargone and leaves a wife and a young son.

His brother Iqhlak Khan alleged that he was killed by the police and local residents when he had gone to a mosque to arrange food for "Iftar".

Ibris Khan, he claimed, was last seen in police custody at Khargone police station on April 10 evening.

"The people in Anand Nagar attacked my brother with weapons and crushed his head with a stone," he alleged while speaking to reporters.

According to him, the police finally told him about Ibris Khan's death only after he threatened to go to the media. "A policeman came to me on Sunday night and told me that Ibris's body is kept in Indore," he said.

The condition of the body indicated a brutal attack, Iqhlak said. "His one eye was broken, there were cuts on his face and legs (sic)," he said.

Significantly, the policemen who registered the murder case against unidentified men on the night of April 14, had filed a missing person report on the complaint of Ibris Khan's brother just 12 hours before.

The murder case FIR (First Information Report) said the body was found at a cotton mill. A witness is quoted as saying that she heard sounds of an attack around 1-1.30 am and when she rushed to the spot, she saw seven or eight people running away.

Iqhlak Khan questioned why it took the police over a week to call the family for an identification. Ibris's family, including mother Mumtaz, had been desperate looking for him all this while.