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Indore bangle seller thrashed, booked for molestation gets bail from high court
Taslim Ali’s lawyer Ehtesham Hashmi said it was unfortunate that the four men arrested by the police for thrashing the bangle seller got bail in 30 days but it took him more than three months to be released on bail.
BHOPAL: The Indore bench of the Madhya Pradesh high court on Tuesday granted bail to a bangle seller, Taslim Ali arrested for allegedly molesting a 13-year-old girl on August 23, a day after he complained that he was brutally thrashed by a group of men because of his religion in Indore.
Justice Sujoy Paul granted him bail on furnishing a ₹50,000 bond.
Government lawyer Aditya Garg said the court granted bail to Taslim Ali after seeing his past record. He has been told to appear before the trial court for the hearing in his case.
Taslim Ali’s lawyer Ehtesham Hashmi said it was unfortunate that the four men arrested by the police for thrashing the bangle seller got bail in 30 days but it took him more than three months to be released on bail.
In his petition for bail, Hashmi said Taslim Ali hadn’t molested the young girl but was falsely implicated after he filed a complaint against a group of men who allegedly thrashed him on August 22 in Indore’s Govind Nagar area after finding out that he was a Muslim. An FIR was registered late in the night after some Muslims staged a protest outside the Banganaga police station.
The following day, Taslim Ali was accused of inappropriately touching a 13-year-old girl and arrested.
The first information report (FIR) registered against Taslim Ali was filed under the Protection of Children from Sexual Offences Act (POCSO) and IPC sections 420 (cheating) and 471 (using fake documents as real ones).
Ehtesham Hashmi called the FIR levelling the molestation charge at Taslim Ali “a brute abuse of power”. Hashmi said there was no mention of the molestation charge in the widely-circulated video of Taslim Ali’s thrashing. “No one uttered anything about this charge,” Hashmi added.
After the video emerged, Madhya Pradesh home minister Narottam Mishra said Taslim Ali was using a fake identity and passing himself off as Hindu. “The man was selling bangles by changing his name. People recovered two Aadhaar cards from his possession with a Hindu name and thrashed him. But they cannot take law into their own hands, so we have registered a case against them.” Mishra said.
