A video had surfaced of the youth being assaulted, stripped, having his face smeared with cow dung, and being paraded on the streets, after he met with a Hindu friend at a hotel.
Police have said they have not found links with the Bajrang Dal, or that to any right-wing organisation, so far of the seven held in connection with the beating up of a 29-year-old inside a hotel in Bhopal recently, on charges of “love jihad”.
Of the seven held, one is a juvenile, Govindpura SHO Awadhesh Singh Tomar said, identifying the others as Brijendra Prajapati, Prateek Chouksey, Lalaram Meena, Ramesh, Ajay and Aman. “Representatives of right-wing organisations have informed that they are a disciplined organisation and these individuals are not their members,” the SHO said.
The Muslim youth has also been arrested since, over old allegations pending for some years. SHO Tomar said: “He was recently released from jail and we found was involved in two cases of mobile phone thefts. After this came to light, we arrested him.”
A video had surfaced of the youth being assaulted, stripped, having his face smeared with cow dung, and being paraded on the streets, after he met with a Hindu friend at a hotel. Both had testified that they were at the hotel voluntarily, and had refused to file a complaint.
The FIR on the basis of which seven people have been held was filed by a local social worker, Mohmmad Uwais Rahmani, who said he was disturbed by the video, and who spoke to the Muslim youth at the police station. Incidentally, what the 29-year-old youth reportedly told Rahmani was initially registered as a complaint in the former’s name. DCP (Bhopal) Vikas Kumar Sehwal said they had “rectified” the same.
Rahmani said the youth told him that he had come to the hotel to meet his woman friend, and was beaten up only because he is Muslim, was “falsely accused of love jihad” and subjected to “indecent behaviour”.
Rahmani told The Indian Express: “I do not know the youth… My complaint was on the sentiments of the Muslim community being hurt.”
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As per his complaint, the youth said that “some persons, who identified themselves as associated with Bajrang Dal, stopped me because I am Muslim”. “They behaved in an extremely inhuman manner with me by forcibly stripping me, smearing black paint on my face, applying cow dung and publicly humiliating me.” It alleges that the accused gathered a crowd and recorded videos while “raising objectionable slogans against my religion, seriously hurting the religious sentiments of both myself and the Muslim community.”
“When I opposed them, the accused paraded me in a public place, assaulted me and threatened to kill me,” Rahmani’s complaint states, quoting the youth.
The victim suffered “physical injuries and extreme mental trauma” and the incident had created “an atmosphere of fear and insecurity” for him and his family, the complaint says.
The complaint also states that videos of the incident were circulated on social media and carried by news platforms. “The acts of the accused are not only a serious attack on my fundamental rights and dignity, but also against the spirit of the Constitution,” the complaint says. It adds that the incident has caused “deep anger within the Muslim community” and could affect the city’s social atmosphere.
