A man was brutally stripped and thrashed for an hour on a train in Moradabad, U.P. to utter the slogan “Jai Sree Ram”.
Mahd Asim Hussain, an aluminum scrap trader is a 45-year-old man. On 12th Jan 2024, Thursday, he boarded the Padmavat Express at the Pratapgarh station from Delhi to go home. On his way on the train, he got beaten up brutally. He was stripped to the waist and whipped in belts for an hour on the train. His beard was pulled and was compelled to chant the slogan “Jai Sree Ram” by a group of right-wing Hindu men. The incident occurred between Hapur and Moradabad railway stations.
The video of Hussain getting thrashed went viral on Friday, on which it can be seen that he was purportedly assaulted by a man whereas others forced him to chant the slogan.
Hussian filed a written complaint with the Government Railway Police(GRP) immediately. Following this, a few of the accused were kept back. He carried on to gather a clip of the incident and filed the complaint bearing the video as a witness. In the complaint, Hussain accused that he was suddenly attacked by a group of men for theft and was pushed off the train. He further accused that he was forced to say the slogan “Jai Sree Ram”.
Victim’s accusations:
According to the victim Hussain, a few businessmen boarded the train at the Hapur station. While speaking to the reporters, he said, “There was a crowd and suddenly 8-10 people started disturbing him. Someone from behind shouted, “Yeh Mulla chor hai” (He is a thief)”. Soon after this, he was beaten up.
He added that “They pulled my beard and said “yeh sab mulle aise hee hothe hai ” (They are all the same). Then they were compelled to chant the slogan “Jai Sree Ram” to which I refused.”
Since he did not serve their demands, he was stripped to his waist and was cruelly beaten up with a belt.
“They bet me so much that I almost went unconscious. Then someone on the train took pity on me and threw me out of the train when the train reached the Moradabad station. After that, someone in the station offered me clothes.” Hussain said.
While inquiring about the identity of his assaulters, Hussain replied in denial. He cried that no one in the crowd tried to rescue him.
The report of police:
Soon after, Aparna Gupta, the Deputy Superintendent of Police, Railway, Moradabad tweeted that two people of the accused had been taken action. The FIR was filed against them on Saturday when Hussain approached after 24 hours of the incident.
To the reporters, the police officer said, “Two of the accused (Satish Kumar, 23 from Rae Bareli, and Suraj Kumar, 25 from Pratapgarh) were taken into our custody based on the information from the viral video, and the co-passengers. These two got off the train at the Bareli Railway Junction.”
However, based on the initial investigation, the police say that the accusations of pulling his beard and forcing him to chant the slogan made by Hussain are false. Yet they are to be seriously focused on it. But an FIR has been made against the two people for breaching the peace.
An FIR on unidentified people is made under sections 323(voluntarily causing hurt), 504(intentional insult with intent to provoke breach of the peace), 392(robbery), 506(criminal intimidation), 298(uttering words, etc., to deliberately wound the religious feelings of any person).
It is to be noted that the locals and the active social media influencers are enraged by this incident and various views on this are being given.
