On 13 January, video of a man being stripped and thrashed in a train surfaced on the internet. People claimed that he has been attacked for the fact that he was a Muslim and that the co-passengers were forcing him to chant ‘Jai Sri Ram’ slogans.
The police probe has revealed that the man was instead likely thrashed for molesting a woman passenger.
The man was later identified as Asim Hussain (46), a resident of the Moradabad district of Uttar Pradesh. The alleged incident took place on the Padmavat Express; Hussain was traveling from Delhi to Moradabad.
As per Hussain’s statement in the media, the men who beta him up tried pulling his beard and forcing him to chant ‘Jai Shri ram’ slogans. After the incident was reported, the police came to the train compartment and identified the attackers as Satish Kumar and Suraj Kumar.
As per reports, the Superintendent of Railway Police Moradabad, Aparna Gupta, said that an FIR was registered in this case almost 24 hours after the incident when Hussain approached the police.
Hussain told the police that the attackers also robbed his money.
As reported by the Indian Express, the accused were booked under IPC sections 298 (uttering words with an intent to hurt religious feelings), 323 (voluntarily causing hurt), 392 (punishment for robbery), 504 (intentionally insulting) and 506 (criminal intimidation).
Contrary to Hussain’s statement, the Moradabad police issued an official statement from their Twitter account on 14 January. Devi Dayal, the Deputy Superintendent of Police (DSP), Moradabad Railway Police, said that they did not find evidence of Hussain being beaten up for not chanting Jai Shri Ram. He said that instead, it has come to light that Hussain might have molested a woman in the train, enraging fellow passengers.
Dayal had earlier given a statement taking cognizance of the viral video. The statement can be watched here:
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