Barely 24 hours after the attack on a Muslim bangle seller by a frenzied mob in Madhya Pradesh’s Indore city, a family of destitute Muslims, seeking alms, was brutally thrashed by some persons in a residential colony in Rajasthan’s pilgrim town of Ajmer and told to “go to Pakistan”.
A video clip of the incident, which went viral on social media, showed a man slapping and kicking the members of the family multiple times and humiliating them because of their religious identity. “This is not the place for you. Go to Pakistan. You will get alms only there,” an assailant is heard telling the victims in the video footage. The incident led to widespread outrage across the State and caused a major embarrassment to the ruling Congress.
The group of youths, who caught hold of the destitute persons, were enraged by their entry into the Hindu dominated neighbourhood. One of the assailants repeatedly kicked a boy on his head as he crouched on the street. The family of victims shown in the video, including a woman, are yet to be identified.
Five persons arrested after their identification in the video were released on bail by the court, as they were charged under a lesser provision of Section 151 of CrPC. Following the demand raised by Ajmer city’s Muslim community, the police on Tuesday registered a case under the provisions of Indian Penal Code and launched investigation.
While the police said the victims, who apparently belonged to Uttar Pradesh, were being traced, Muslim social activists took exception to the initial laxity of police which resulted in the accused getting bail. Police registered the case under the stringent provisions only after the community members approached the senior officers with the plea that their religious sentiments had been hurt.
