North-East Delhi riots: Hope fading for autorickshaw driver with probe stuck in red tape

New Delhi: An autorickshaw driver without an autorickshaw for four months now keeps making rounds of the Karkardooma Court complex, unable to read the legal documents he hauls around with himself and not knowing what to do to be able to get his vehicle back or get the compensation promised to him and many others who have lost much more than a vehicle and their livelihoods in the north-east Delhi riots.

45-year-old Jafruddin tears up outside the court complex on a summer afternoon and recounts, "After the mob set fire to my autorickshaw near Karawal Nagar, I could not sleep for five to six days straight. I did not know what to do to keep that image out of my head."

On February 24 around 7 pm, Jafruddin's autorickshaw was stopped by three men, who first asked him his name. "Knowing the situation and afraid for my life, I told them a Hindu name hoping that it would save me," he said. However, that was not enough, "One of them took away my vehicle keys and the other started asking me to chant 'Jai Shree Ram'. I did it," he said. But soon, suspicions grew and the three started asking him to take his pants off.

"I somehow managed to run away and kept running for at least one to 1.5 km before they stopped chasing me. By that time, they had called more men and around 80 of them with lathis and rods were charging at me," Jafruddin told Millennium Post, adding that when he returned to the spot a couple of days later, the rioters had dismantled his vehicle and burnt a significant part of it.

But Jafruddin's problems did not end there. He filed a police complaint, first at the Karawal Nagar police station in the first week of March. He told the Investigating Officer that he had recognised two of the rioters by name and the IO assured him of action. His lawyer, Haider Ali, who has taken up the case pro-bono, said, "No action, no investigation, no arrests so far. I don't know what they are doing."

And with the Delhi Police referring his case from Karawal Nagar to Dayalpur over jurisdiction issues, his autorickshaw is now stuck at Dayalpur police station and there seems to be no sight of getting compensation.

"Even for the compensation, I've been running from pillar to post. They keep asking me to come another day," Jafruddin said, adding that Haider had been providing his family with ration for the last four months. When the SDM office asked for an FIR copy, police had not provided it to him and when the police had given him the FIR copy, the lockdown was imposed, said Haider.

However, Jafruddin said he does not know how to file the application papers properly and every time he has gone to the SDM office, officials have asked him to come another day. He added that he is unable to understand how to get the paperwork sorted out for the compensation application.

Haider said, "I have many clients who are unable to get compensation for various reasons and I wonder whether any of them will ever get their dues." He added that he left his Supreme Court practice to help victims of the riots on a pro-bono basis after he found out the difficulties they were facing. "I'm trying my best to get them all the help that I can."

North-East Delhi SDM Shashi Kaushal, however, said that they can provide all the help to Jafruddin and others like him if he manages to get to the SDM office with his application form. "We will take care of everything but the applicant would need to arrive here with the documentation," she said.