SOURCE :- SIASAT NEWS
Mumbai: More than a year after Rahim Khan’s 20-year-old son was lynched by a mob that included his closest friends, his dwindling hope is the only thing carrying him through daily life. “Ummeed rakhna zaroori hai. Baaki hai hi kya apne paas? (Its important to hold on to hope. What else do we have left?),” he said.
A mob lynched Suleman Pathan on August 11, 2025, after dragging him out of a cafe where he was meeting a Hindu girl in Maharashtra’s Jalgaon district. Seven of the 10 accused have since been released on bail and one remains absconding. The main accused got bail in 90 days, while the trial has not yet been initiated.
“Aisa lag raha hai unko hi sab success mil raha hai. Hum log bas ruke hain (It feels like they are succeeding at everything, while we just wait),” Mehboob Khan, Suleman’s brother-in-law, told investigative news portal Article 14.
As the family still reels from witnessing Suleman’s violent end, their hope wilts away with delayed justice.
Beaten over the 20-km journey back to village
On the day of the incident, a mob of armed men dragged Suleman out of the cafe and forced him inside a van for a 20-kilometre ride back to his native village, Betawad Khurd. During the journey, the van stopped several times. At each stop, the 20-year-old was taken out and beaten with iron rods, wooden sticks and punches.
The assault continued till they reached the village, where he arrived half-naked, with nails pulled out, ears bleeding and writhing in pain. The mob assaulted him for five hours, the Article 14 report said.
The family rushed to rescue him after being notified by a villager. However, when they tried to intervene, members of the mob allegedly threatened to assault the women sexually. Suleman died in his family’s arms, asking for water.
“Suleiman ko bahut tadpa tadpa ke maara (Suleiman was killed after being tortured again and again),” his brother-in-law Mehboob said.
Irregularities in police investigation
The family had identified 17 people involved in the lynching. The police named just 11 as accused in the chargesheet. The family claims that the police refused to add the names of mob members they witnessed beating Suleman. “The police said we needed to bring evidence that he was involved,” said Suleman’s father Rahim at the time of the assault.
They had questioned how the family of the victims is expected to gather evidence about the accused.
In the 2018 landmark Tehseen S Poonawalla v Union of India judgment, the Supreme Court mandated daily hearings in fast-track or designated courts for mob lynching cases. It had specified that trials should ideally conclude within six months of taking cognisance.
A year has passed in the Suleman Pathan case without charges being framed or the matter being assigned to a fast-track court. According to Jalgaon district court records, 48 hearings have taken place so far without framing charges.
Accused bailed one after the other
Rahim’s 2025 police complaint named Abhishek Rajput (22), Ranjan Matade (48), Aditya Devre, Sojwal Teli and Krishna Teli, along with 10 or 12 others. The first information report (FIR) includes charges of assault, kidnapping and rioting.
Last year on November 11, three months after the lynching, four of the accused were released on bail. The judicial magistrate cited the lack of a chargesheet filed by the Jamner Police within 90 days of the crime.
In May 2026, prime accused Rishikesh Teli was granted bail with the court ruling that “nothing incriminating was noted” in the closed circuit television (CCTV) camera footage. “The allegations against him are omnibus in nature. He is not stated to be armed with any weapon,” the court said.
The Aurangabad bench of the Bombay High Court in August 2026 granted bail to Nitin Patil, another accused identified as the cousin of the girl Suleman was meeting the day of the incident.
The family worries that with most of the accused granted bail, the case itself may weaken. “What if they start influencing the witnesses to retract their statements?” Rahim told Article 14. “We have left the village, but the eyewitnesses want to continue staying there.”
Those he called ‘jaan,’ his friends, were part of the mob
Suleman’s family moved out of their 150-year-old ancestral home in Betawad Khurd in November 2025, traumatised by the assault. Although the village is Hindu-dominated with only four Muslim families, it was peaceful.
In 2024, Suleman led the local Ganesh mandal, from fundraising to choosing the idol. He even refused to leave the village and turned down a job offer from his brother-in-law, hoping to one day become a police officer. All his friends were Hindus and his family had often joked that he considered himself a Hindu.
That is what haunts Suleman’s family the most. At least three members of the mob were people Suleman considered close friends. “They were part of his daily life. He trusted them more than anyone. He used to call them his ‘jaan.’ That’s how fond he was of them,” said Khan, his brother-in-law.
‘No matter what we do, we hit a wall’
The family has repeatedly hit a brick wall with police unwillingness and numerous hearings with no defined ruling. The Maharashtra government filed an appeal against the bail granted to four accused in November 2025. The Jalgaon Sessions Court rejected the appeal and the accused’s bail was upheld.
Suleman’s family also asked the police to invoke more stringent sections of the law as well as the Maharashtra Control of Organised Crime Activities Act, 1999. The family’s request went unheard and their writ petition has had 15 hearings and no ruling.
“What hurts is the feeling that there is no one listening to us,” said Mehboob Khan. “No matter what we do, we hit a wall. Apna kon hai, paraya kon hai, malum nahi pad raha hai (Who is to be trusted and who isn’t is difficult to tell).”
Pursuing the matter in court is not easy for Rahim and his family, whose income from the farm is barely enough to survive on. “It feels like we are earning only so that we can foot these legal expenses,” said Mehboob Khan. He added that the family would borrow money if they had to and continue to seek justice legally.
SOURCE : SIASAT
