Ghaziabad: Uttar Pradesh police have named Twitter, several journalists, and Congress leaders in an FIR in Ghaziabad over “provoking communal sentiments” after an elderly Muslim man was physically assaulted by a group of men on June 5.
Police also claimed to have arrested another Muslim man who said he had rushed to help the victim when he was attacked by the group, both Hindus and Muslims.
Senior Superintendent of Police Amit Pathak was quoted by PTI as having said the two arrested in connection with the incident have been identified as “Kalloo” and “Adil”.
Apart from them, Polly, Arif, Mushahid and Parvesh Gurjar were also involved in the incident, Ghaziabad police said.
As the man, Abdul Samad, claimed in a video that his beard was cut off and he was forced to chant “Vande Mataram” and “Jai Shri Ram” after the accused took him away to a forested area and locked him up in a hut, police have ruled out any “communal angle”, NDTV reported.
The FIR filed in Ghaziabad’s Loni names journalists Rana Ayyub, Saba Naqvi and Mohammed Zubair. Online news platform “The Wire”, and Congress leaders Salman Nizami, Shama Mohamed and Maskoor Usmani have also been named. They have been accused of posting tweets without “verifying facts” and “giving a communal colour” to the incident.
The report said that Tweets were shared with a clear motive to “provoke communal sentiments”, says the FIR, adding that the “misleading” posts were re-tweeted by thousands of people. The complaint further said Ghaziabad Police had “put out a clarification” via their Twitter handle on Monday night, but the users did not delete the posts and Twitter took no action to remove them.
Ruling out any communal angle in the case, police have said Sufi Abdul Samad was attacked by six men – Hindus and Muslims – who were unhappy over some amulets (tahveez) he had sold them, which they believe “did not work”.
थाना लोनी बार्डर क्षेत्रान्तर्गत हुई घटना में #GhaziabadPolice द्वारा की गई कठोर कार्यवाही- 03 अभियुक्त गिरफ्तार ।
उक्त सम्बन्ध में पुलिस अधीक्षक, ग्रामीण की वीडियो बाईट।@Uppolice https://t.co/IIcMJIvn46 pic.twitter.com/ZGHGQIpXsh— GHAZIABAD POLICE (@ghaziabadpolice) June 15, 2021
“On social media, we came across a video where an elderly man- Abdul Samad, resident of UP’s Bulandshahr, is being attacked by some men. When we investigated this further, we found that he came on June 5 from Loni border area. From there, Abdul Samad, who makes amulets, went to Hazipur village. He already knew the accused. The men, who were upset with him, had called him. Several arrests have already been made,” Ghaziabad police officer Iraj Raja is heard saying in an official video statement. Three people have so far been arrested over the assault.
The FIR against Twitter and eight others have been filed under IPC sections 153 (provocation for rioting), 153A (promoting enmity between different groups), 295A (acts intended to outrage religious feelings), 505 (mischief), 120B (criminal conspiracy) and 34 (common intention) against them.
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