The police have arrested four persons and filed an FIR against over a dozen people after Mohammed Fareed alias Aurangzeb was beaten to death over suspicion of theft.
Team Clarion
NEW DELHI – Hindutva groups led by the Bharatiya Janta Party (BJP) MLA Mukta Raja on Wednesday held a protest demanding the release of the accused arrested for lynching a Muslim man in Uttar Pradesh’s Aligarh city.
The police have arrested four persons and filed an FIR against over a dozen people after Mohammed Fareed alias Aurangzeb was beaten to death over suspicion of theft. Family members and local Muslims protested and vowed that they would not carry out Fareed’s funeral unless all the accused were arrested.
A video of the incident has also gone viral in which a group of people can be seen assaulting the deceased with sticks and rods.
On the other hand, Hindutva groups came out in support of the accused arrested for lynching Fareed. On Wednesday, around 800 shops in the Mamu Bhaja area were shut down as a mark of protest against the arrests.
According to the Hindi daily Dainik Bhaskar, the protesters also resorted to violence and started pelting stones at the police.
Bajrang Dal leader Gaurav Sharma claimed that the Samajwadi Party (SP) leaders seeking the arrest of the lynching accused are supporting a thief. He said people should not forget that the state government was led by Yogi Adityanath and “he would run bulldozers on them.”
“Though I do not justify mob lynching, those trying to protect a thief should remember clearly that UP is still ruled by Yogi Adityanath whose government has zero tolerance for crime. Do not forget that bulldozers had razed properties of such elements and these (bulldozers) will roar again on streets to teach criminals a lesson,” said Sharma.
Meanwhile, Mrigank Shekhar Pathak, Superintendent of Police Aligarh city, said that no accused will be spared.
“An FIR under IPC Section 302 (murder) was registered at the Gandhi Park police station late on Tuesday night in this connection. We have arrested four persons named in the FIR so far and are trying to identify others involved in the incident through available video footage. No one will be spared,” he said.
Those who were booked under the murder charges are Ankit Vashnya, Chirag Vashnya, Sanjay alias Balaji Vashnya, Rishabh Pathak, Anuj Agarwal, Monu Pathak, Pandit Vijaygarhwala, Kamal Bansal, Dimple Agarwal, Rahul Agarwal and some other unidentified persons.
Talking about the incident, Ajju Ishaq, the SP leader, said: “An innocent Muslim man has been lynched by the Hindu family and others who painted him as a thief, while the fact is that he had mistakenly entered the house owned by Mukesh Mittal. The incident highlights the plight of the minority community under the Yogi Adityanath government in Uttar Pradesh. We have called for a sit-in and will intensify our protest if all those named in the FIR are not arrested soon”.
