1: The man, Rizwan Ahmad, was beaten by three men over communal reasons.
2: A video of the attack shows Ahmad bleeding, while one of the accused said that Ahmad would be cut "by halal" and "jhatka."
3: All three involved in the assault have been arrested, police said.
A man in Uttarakhand’s Pauri Garhwal was allegedly attacked by three people after he refused to chant religious slogans, police said. All three accused have since been arrested.
According to the FIR filed on the basis of the victim’s complaint, Rizwan Ahmad, a resident of Saharanpur in Uttar Pradesh, said the incident occurred on August 15 at about 4 pm near Dungripanth, at a tea shop.
“I went to have tea at Rakesh Lal’s tea shop. Inside the shop, there were already three people under the influence of liquor. One of them, named Mukesh Bhatt, asked me to chant ‘Jai Shri Ram’,” The Indian Express reported. Ahmad alleged that when he refused, he was assaulted, abused, and threatened by Bhatt and two others.
“They caught hold of my beard, pulled it violently, and shouted: ‘Cut this man’s beard!’ They made a video of this assault. I was forced to chant ‘Bharat Mata ki Jai’ and ‘Jai Shri Ram’. Somehow, I escaped through the back of the shop and ran towards my vehicle,” he said.
Ahmad also alleged in the same complaint that the group threatened another man from Saharanpur, Mukhtiyar Islam, on the same day, trying to force him to chant “Jai Shri Ram.”
A video of the attack later surfaced, showing Ahmad bleeding as the three men beat him while another recorded the assault and the shop owner looked on. The footage captured Ahmad being subjected to communal slurs, The Indian Express.
One of the accused is heard asking why he could not chant “Bharat Mata ki Jai” on Independence Day, while another said, “If you want to live in Hindustan, you must chant Jai Shri Ram.” At one point, a voice in the video warned, “We will cut you by halal, we will cut you by jhatka.”
Police identified the accused as Mukesh Bhatt, Naveen Bhandari, and Manish Bisht. The FIR was registered on Saturday at the Srinagar police station in Pauri under BNS sections 115(2) (voluntarily causing hurt), 196 (promoting enmity between different groups on grounds of religion), 299 (deliberate and malicious acts intended to outrage religious feelings), 351(2) (criminal intimidation), and 352 (intentional insult with intent to provoke breach of peace).
“All three youths have been arrested for assaulting and misbehaving with the victim. They were produced before the court and legal proceedings are underway,” an official said.
Bhatt hails from Rishikesh, Bisht from Srinagar, and Bhandari from Chinyalisaur in Uttarkashi.
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