The Uttarakhand Police have registered a first information report (FIR) against a named accused and unidentified persons for allegedly assaulting a Muslim man while he was offering namaz on a vacant plot near a temple in Rudrapur in Udham Singh Nagar district.
A video of the incident, which occurred on Tuesday afternoon, has gone viral on social media, wherein the footage shows a man approaching the victim during namaz, grabbing him by the neck and throwing him to the ground. The accused is then seen kicking and slapping the man, verbally abusing him and forcing him to chant “Jai Shri Ram”.
In the video, the accused can be heard asking, “How could you offer namaz near the temple?” The victim was allowed to leave only after being forced to chant “Jai Shri Ram”. The authenticity of the video, however, could not be independently verified.
The victim, Mohammad Shahid (44), a resident of Resham Bari area, had gone to Jagatpura for daily wage work. The incident took place around 2pm near the Atriya Temple.
The police registered an FIR at the Pantnagar station against Arvind Sharma and others under sections 115 (voluntarily causing hurt), 351(3) (criminal intimidation) and 352 (intentional insult with intent to provoke breach of peace) of the Bharatiya Nyaya Sanhita (BNS).
Superintendent of police (Crime) Jitendra Choudhary said, “We have registered the complaint of the victim and started our investigation into the matter.”
Speaking to HT, Shahid said he sustained injuries in the assault. “I had been going there for the past few days for daily wage work. Since it is Ramzan and I am observing fast, I used to offer namaz in the afternoon nearby. It was the fourth day I was praying there. Yesterday, some people came and assaulted me while recording a video,” he said.
He added that the video did not capture the entire incident. “Even after recording it, they continued to beat me with sticks. They forced me to chant ‘Jai Shri Ram’ and threatened to kill me. I said it under compulsion because I wanted to save my life. I am already unwell,” Shahid said.
SP Choudhary said the investigation would also look into the ownership of the land where the victim was offering namaz. “All aspects are being looked into,” he said.
