Junaid killing not intentional, says mahapanchayat at main suspect’s village, demands probe

The marathon mahapanchayat that started around 10 am lasted for seven hours. Villagers from different parts Haryana constituted a 51-member committee to build pressure on the government for a `fair investigation’.

Six days after Naresh Kumar, the main suspect in the Junaid stabbing case, was arrested from Maharashtra’s Dhule, a mahapanchayat held in his support in his native Bhamrola village in Palwal district on Thursday concluded that the killing was not intentional.

The marathon mahapanchayat that started around 10 am lasted for seven hours. Villagers from different parts Haryana constituted a 51-member committee to build pressure on the government for a `fair investigation’.

Villagers, while expressing their sympathy with Junaid’s family, demanded a thorough probe into the incident.

The marathon mahapanchayat that started around 10 am lasted for seven hours. Villagers from different parts Haryana constituted a 51-member committee to build pressure on the government for a `fair investigation’.

“The people who attended today’s mahapanchayat at Bhamrola village were of the view that the June 22 incident in the EMU train was just an accident. They fought over a seat, which led to clashes and an impression was created that the killing was intentional, which was not the case,” said Arun Zaildar Sondhe, who was chosen to head the committee.

“The mahapanchayat expressed sympathy with Junaid’s family. It was felt that the committee should visit Junaid’s family and explain that the killing was not intentional and whatever happened was the result of self-defence”.

The mahapanchayat asked how “Junaid and his brothers on board the train called other members from their village, resulting in an escalation of the clashes”.

Demanding a high-level probe into the circumstances that led to the death of Junaid, the mahapanchayat’s participants said either the CBI or a special investigation team (SIT) should probe all angles.

“Naresh Kumar has suffered injuries in his body due to the clashes...chances are we may file a counter FIR in the case if the state government does not take our plea seriously,” one of the members in the mahapanchayat said.

The committee is likely to meet on Friday and chart out the next course of action and finalize a date to meet the Haryana chief minister.

“People from 127 villages attended today’s mahapanchayat,” said Virender Sehrawat, sarpanch of Bhamrola.

Villagers of Khambi had also held a mahapanchayat a few days ago in support of four other youths who were arrested in the same case. In all, six persons have been arrested till now in connection with the June 22 incident.

The government railway police had taken Naresh Kumar to Dhule in Maharashtra to recover the T-shirt he was wearing at the time of the incident. He will be produced before the court again on July 16.

SHO Bahim police station Ashwani Kumar confirmed that the mahapanchayat was held. “We ensured law and order is not disturbed, we had deployed cops as a precautionary measure”.

“The mahapanchayat went off peacefully,” he added.