Nishank Rathore found dead; earlier had received, ‘Sar tan se juda’ message [ Madhya Pradesh, India]

[ Reported as seen]

On 25 July, Nishank Rathore, a third-year college student, was found dead on the railway tracks near Obaidullaganj town in Raisen district of Madhya Pradesh. The father, Uma Shankar Rathore revealed that before his death he had received a message that read, “Gustakh-e-Nabi ki ek saza, sar tan sey judaa.”  The message was received on 24 July, at 5.44 p.m by the father.

After reading the message, Uma Shankar tried to trace his son, 20 years old Nishant Rathore, a third-year student at Oriental College in Bhopal in Madhya Pradesh.

However, Nishank was missing from his hostel room, and later, his dead body was recovered from the railway tracks in Obaidullaganj in Raisen district of Madhya Pradesh.

Speaking to India Today TV, IG Suri said, “We have traced his movements through CCTV cameras right from the time he left his room in Bhopal. At 5.09 pm he was spotted at a petrol pump and he was not accompanied by anyone. The post-mortem has revealed that he died because of coming before a moving train.

India has seen murders in unproven blasphemy against the Prophet Mohammed (Nabi) for nearly a century, with Mahashay Rajpal being a notable figure to lose his life. However, these incidents have spiked in recent days after Nupur Sharma quoted a line from Islamic religious texts.