The body of Syed Saifuddin, the 43-year-old man from Hyderabad who was shot by Railway Police Force (RPF) constable Chetan Singh aboard a moving train, reached Hamilapur near Bidar, Karnataka from Mumbai where it was laid to rest.
Accompanied by family and facilitated by All India Majlis-e-Ittehadul Muslimeen (AIMIM) leaders, including Nampally legislator Jaffar Hussain Meraj, Saifuddin’s body was brought from Bhagvati Hospital - Borivali and brought to a house in Hamilapur late on August 2 night. Anxious family, friends, and well-wishers from the village, Hyderabad and Bidar, had begun to gather at the house to bid farewell to the slain father of three.
It was a gloomy, and overcast Thursday morning in Hamilapur. Soon after the funeral prayers were performed, during which congregants stood shoulder-to-shoulder, heads bowed in front of the funeral palanquin sheathed in flowers around 8 a.m., Mr. Saifuddin’s body was taken to the lone graveyard in the area where he was buried.
“A lot of people came to the tadfeen [burial] and to pay condolences,” said Mohammed Wajid, the victim’s maternal uncle. “Look at the state of affairs. Is it a crime to wear a beard?” he said.
On August 2 night, the Nampally legislator, who was in Mumbai to make arrangements for the body’s transportation, expressed grief at Saifuddin’s killing, and dismay over the gruesome incident aboard the train.
Speaking to the media, Mr. Meraj described Saifuddin as an “innocent man” who was his constituent. He said that the AIMIM extended all help with the formalities in connection with getting the body released.
Demanding justice and immediate relief for the victim’s family, the legislator said, “The Central government should provide the victim’s wife with a government job. We demand from the government that at least ₹25 lakh be given to each of the three little girls as a fixed deposit,” he said, even as he requested people who believe in secularism to come forward to help the victim, irrespective of the government’s decisions.
