New Delhi: Azeem, a 24-year-old Muslim man from Moradabad, died at a Delhi hospital on August 4, four days after he was brutally thrashed allegedly by a group of kanwariyas following a road accident in Uttar Pradesh’s Hapur district. He leaves behind a wife, an infant son, and an ailing father, Intezar, who has been bedridden for over a year.“My boy was beaten up and killed. Who knows exactly what happened?” Intezar told The Wire from his residence in Moradabad. “All I want is justice. He was our sole breadwinner.”Azeem’s death stemmed from a collision near Shiva Dhaba, ahead of the Brijghat toll plaza in Hapur, where the mini-truck he was driving to work from Moradabad to Delhi collided with a parked auto-rickshaw carrying kanwariyas.Azeem was rushed to a local nursing home in Garhmukhteshwar, shifted to SS Hospital in Meerut in a comatose state, and later transferred to Delhi, where he ultimately succumbed to his injuries without ever regaining consciousness.While police booked the auto driver along with half-a-dozen other occupants of the auto for assaulting Azeem, which ultimately led to his death, an FIR was also lodged against Azeem on the charge of attempted murder on the complaint of the auto driver Farman’s father Imran on August 3. Both the FIRs were lodged at Garmukhteshwar police station in Hapur.The Station House Officer (SHO) of Garhmukhteshwar police station on August 9 told The Wire that no arrests had been made in the case so far. The officer also confirmed that Azeem had died of his injuries.The first FIR was lodged at 10:33 pm on July 31 on the basis of Azeem’s father Intezar’s complaint. Auto driver Farman, four passengers who were allegedly kanwariyas (Ankit, Lokesh, Manish and Shivam) and two other unidentified persons were named in the FIR. They were booked for attempted murder, rioting and voluntarily causing hurt.According to Intezar, Azeem was driving the mini truck from his native Moradabad to Delhi on July 31 morning when near the Brijghat toll plaza, the vehicle collided with an auto that was parked on the side of the road.Intezar said that the driver and the other occupants of the auto beat up Azeem brutally, due to which he suffered several injuries.Intezar said Azeem was admitted to the Meerut nursing home in Garhmukteshwar and later referred to the SS Hospital in Meerut, the next big city. Azeem was in a coma and in a serious condition when the FIR was registered. After two days in the Meerut hospital, when his condition did not improve, he was taken to Delhi where he died at a hospital on Tuesday night, said Intezar. He said his son didn’t get a chance to narrate the incident. “He didn’t even speak a word after being taken to hospital,” said Intezar, with regret.The FIR lodged against Azeem on the basis of the complaint of the auto driver’s father confirms that the passengers were kanwariyas belonging to a village in Hapur. An FIR under charges of attempted murder was lodged against Azeem on the complaint of Imran, the father of the auto driver Farman, aged 19. The case was lodged on August 3 at 7:53 pm.According to Imran, on the night of July 30, some locals in his village had hired his son Farman’s auto-rickshaw to travel to Brijghat on the Ganga river to fetch kanwad water.Around 3 am on July 31, Farman was standing on the side of the road when a speeding small truck carrying Azeem and unidentified persons deliberately rammed hard into my son causing him to fall onto the road, said Imran. “The driver deliberately ran the vehicle over my son a second time with the intention of killing him,” Imran alleged.The driver ran the wheels of the vehicle over Farman’s abdomen and chest, before speeding away from the scene, said Imran. Farman received serious injuries to his head, abdomen and spine. Locals found him in an unconscious state and took him to Saraswati Hospital in nearby town Pilkhuwa. Imran said that police from the local outpost visited the hospital, noted his son’s details and advised legal action, while giving priority to his treatment.Farman was shifted to a trauma centre in AIIMS Delhi due to his serious condition.Imran said that Farman’s spleen and intestines ruptured when the vehicle’s wheel allegedly ran over his abdomen. Farman was in a coma, when his father submitted his police complaint.Omar Rashid is an independent journalist.