Congress MP Rahul Gandhi on Tuesday condemned an incident in Ghaziabad in which an elderly Muslim man was allegedly beaten and had his beard chopped off by a group of youngsters.
In a strongly worded tweet, the Congress leader said such cruelty was a shame for the society.
Tagging a report on the incident, he tweeted in Hindi, "I am not willing to accept that true devotees of Lord Ram can do such a thing. Such cruelty is far removed from humanity and is shameful for both society and religion.”
A video of the incident which has been widely shared across most social media platforms shows a group of men attacking a Muslim man, who has been identified as Sufi Abdul Samad.
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In the video, the men can be heard asking Samad to chant “Jai Shri Ram” as they cut his beard. According to Ghaziabad Police, Samad was attacked after the group became unhappy over the amulets he had sold to them.
The arrested youth have been identified as Kalloo and Adil. Apart from them, Polly, Arif, Mushahid and Parvesh Gurjar were also involved in the incident, Senior Superintendent of Police Amit Pathak said.
The Ghaziabad police had earlier arrested Gurjar, who owns the house where the alleged incident took place.
Samad practised occultism and had sold some amulets to Gurjar, purportedly to free one of his family members from some "evil effect" but a dispute arose between the two as there was no desired result of the amulet, Superintendent of Police rural Iraj Raja said.
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Showing his injuries in the video, Samad in his police complaint stated he was abducted from Gokulpuri area when he took an auto for Loni in Ghaziabad.
(With PTI inputs)
