A mob tied a dog leash around a Muslim man’s neck and assaulted him for visiting a Hindu woman friend at her home at Kankhal in Uttarakhand’s Haridwar, police said on Sunday.
Videos of the incident circulated on social media purportedly showed Shadab from Haryana’s Karnal sitting outside the woman’s house with blood oozing from his head while a crowd gathered around him. In one video, a man can be heard asking him, “Did you not know she is a Hindu woman?” Another clip purportedly shows a man slapping him on Saturday.
Police have registered a case under sections 115(2) (voluntarily causing hurt), 191(2) (rioting), 333 (house-trespass after preparation for hurt, assault or wrongful restraint), 351(2) (criminal intimidation) and 352 (intentional insult with intent to provoke breach of the peace) of the Bharatiya Nyaya Sanhita (BNS) on the woman’s complaint.
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In her complaint, the woman said she had known Shadab for five years. She alleged that around a dozen men barged into her house and assaulted him. “I tried to intervene, but they did not stop. They abused him and threatened to kill him,” she said in the complaint.
{{/usCountry}}In her complaint, the woman said she had known Shadab for five years. She alleged that around a dozen men barged into her house and assaulted him. “I tried to intervene, but they did not stop. They abused him and threatened to kill him,” she said in the complaint.
{{/usCountry}}Ravi Chauhan, the Haridwar district president of Bajrang Vahini Dal, said they received a tip-off that a Muslim man was found in an objectionable state. “We informed the police and handed him over to them.”
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Anuj Singh, a senior sub-inspector of police, said they were informed on Saturday afternoon that a man who had come to meet a woman had been assaulted. “We reached the spot and sent the injured man to a hospital for treatment. A case was subsequently registered on the woman’s complaint. She has told us that she knows the man and had no objection to his visiting her house,” Singh said.
Singh said they are examining CCTV footage and videos circulating on social media to identify those involved in the assault. “Appropriate legal action will be taken.”