Tension prevailed in Meerut for the fourth consecutive day on 13 May after one of the victims injured in the clashes on 10 May died in the hospital in the night of 12 May. The 18-year-old victim was shot in the head by unidentified miscreants in the Kotwali area. He was studying in Rishikesh, Uttarakhand, and had come home for vacation when the tragedy happened. “My son got killed for no fault of his,” his father said.
As the news of the death spread, large crowds gathered outside the Meerut Medical College Hospital and raised slogans against the district administration. Most of the commercial areas, including Sarrafa Bazar, Bazaza Bazaar, Lala Ka Bazaar and Teergaran, the epicentre of the communal violence, remained closed for the fourth day. Eyewitnesses have been asked to give evidence by May 20 before Chief Development Officer Vedpati Mishra, who is conducting magisterial inquiry into the clashes.