The Raebareli Police have provided a detailed clarification about the shocking murder of a man named Hariom Valmiki in Uttar Pradesh.

On 1 October 2025, Hariom Valmiki, a resident of Ishwardadpur village in Raebareli district, was brutally beaten to death after being mistaken for a member of a so-called “drone thief gang.” According to police reports, Hariom, who was said to be mentally unstable, was travelling with a few villagers to attend a post-funeral ritual. On his way, he apparently lost his route and wandered off in a different direction.

At around 10 p.m., in the Gadaganj police-station area, local villagers informed officers about a “suspicious man” seen nearby. The police questioned Hariom but found nothing against him, so they allowed him to continue. Soon after, he reached Ishwardadpur, where another group of villagers confronted him, accusing him of being part of the rumoured gang. Across India, baseless social-media rumours have circulated that thieves use drones to steal valuables from homes. Hariom, unaware of these false stories and unable to answer their aggressive questioning, became the victim of mob hysteria.

Eyewitnesses said that when Hariom failed to reply coherently, the angry crowd beat him mercilessly for nearly two hours, causing injuries so severe that he died on the spot.
According to police statements published by Times of India and India Today, the assault was purely the result of mistaken identity and mass panic—not an organised or caste-driven crime.

Congress and Rahul Gandhi fabricated caste narrative

As soon as the murder made national headlines, the Congress party turned the incident into a political flashpoint. Hariom belonged to the Dalit community, and the party swiftly tried to frame the case as a caste atrocity.

In a post on X (formerly Twitter), Karnataka Congress declared, “A young Dalit man, Hari Om, was lynched in Rae Bareli; beaten, tied, and tortured to death. His last words were ‘Rahul Gandhi ji, help me!’ His killers mocked him saying, ‘We are Baba’s men.’ That one line says it all. Under Adityanath, Uttar Pradesh isn’t a state, it’s a warning. And yet, BJP’s Troll-in-Chief who was lecturing us on Dalit rights with fake news is now silent when Dalits under BJP rule are humiliated, brutalised, and killed. This is BJP’s idea of Sabka Saath: silence when Dalits bleed, slogans when elections near.”

Rahul Gandhi, the Congress MP from Raebareli and Leader of the Opposition in the Lok Sabha, followed with his own Hindi post:
“The brutal murder of Dalit youth Hariom Valmiki in Raebareli is not merely the killing of a man, it is the murder of humanity, the Constitution, and justice itself. Today in India, Dalits, Adivasis, Muslims, backward communities, and the poor, every person whose voice is weak, whose share is being snatched away, and whose life is considered cheap, is being targeted. Hatred, violence, and mob rule have found shelter under those in power, where bulldozers have replaced the Constitution, and fear has taken the place of justice. I stand with Hariom’s family, they will get justice. The future of India rests on equality and humanity, and this nation will be governed by the Constitution, not by the madness of mobs.”

Other Congress leaders quickly echoed this narrative. Rajya Sabha MP Syed Naseer Hussain wrote, “The number of such cases is rising steeply. Backward classes, especially Dalits, Muslims and Christians, are repeatedly becoming victims of mob violence as the government remains a silent spectator.”
He added, “We must demand an end to state support of hate crimes targeted against Dalits, minorities and backward classes.”

Congress national spokesperson Shama Mohamed also posted on X: “This is what the double engine of Yogi and Modi has done in Uttar Pradesh. Their politics of hate is taking the lives of Dalits and the marginalised. Muslims are under attack, women are unsafe, and Dalits and OBCs are being targeted, no one is safe under the BJP government anywhere.”

These remarks collectively painted the event as a deliberate caste crime—long before the official investigation could establish any facts.

Police rejected caste claim

Contrary to political claims, the Raebareli Police firmly rejected any caste motive.
In a press release dated 4 October 2025, the department clarified:
“On 2 October 2025, police received information that a man’s body was found near the railway track close to Ishwardaspur Halt in the Unchahar area of Raebareli district. The deceased was identified as Shishupal, son of Gangacharan, aged around 38 years, a resident of Raebareli. The body was sent for post-mortem, and reports confirmed that the death occurred due to severe assault.”

The statement continued, “During investigation, it emerged that the victim had been beaten to death by villagers who mistook him for a thief. Based on the findings, a case was registered under Section 105 of the Bharatiya Nyaya Sanhita for culpable homicide. Acting swiftly, the Unchahar police traced and arrested five individuals from Ishwardaspur village involved in the incident. They were presented before the local court and remanded to judicial custody.”

When several opposition figures insisted on a caste connection, the police reiterated that the murder stemmed from mob suspicion, not social prejudice. Officers further highlighted that the arrested suspects came from multiple social backgrounds—including Dalit and backward communities—disproving the idea of a caste conspiracy.

Police appealed to citizens not to spread misinformation and confirmed that five police personnel had been suspended pending inquiry for negligence. They also said that investigators were using screenshots from viral videos to identify everyone involved in the assault.

Conclusion: Political opportunism over truth

The Congress party’s attempt to recast a tragic mob incident as a caste atrocity shows a recurring pattern of political opportunism. Instead of waiting for verified facts, its leaders rushed to frame the narrative to fit their long-standing rhetoric of oppression. The Raebareli Police’s investigation and the diversity of the accused make clear that this was a case of mistaken identity driven by rumour and fear, not by caste hatred.

Such selective storytelling does a disservice to both truth and justice. By exploiting a human tragedy for electoral mileage, political actors risk deepening community divides. Hariom Valmiki’s death is a grim reminder of how rumours can kill—and how politics can make those deaths even heavier with false meaning.