Prasad sent the WhatsApp messages to his wife after going missing from his house including a ‘Sar Tan Se Juda’ threat (which points to a Muslim call for punishing with beheading for blaspheming Prophet Mohammed) and the flag of banned Muslim organisation, Popular Front of India (PFI)
Team Clarion
NEW DELHI – Faced by financial distress, an ex-serviceman, named Rajendra Prasad, faked his abduction and sent communal messages to his family members purportedly from his abductors from his phone to mislead them into believing involvement of Muslims in the case.
Prasad sent the WhatsApp messages to his wife after going missing from his house including a ‘Sar Tan Se Juda’ threat (which points to a Muslim call for punishing with beheading for blaspheming Prophet Mohammed) and the flag of banned Muslim organisation, Popular Front of India (PFI).
Taking advantage of the communal nature of the messages that his family members received, some people had started using the incident to spread communal hatred on social media.
The Times of India reported that the relatives of Prasad had indirectly blamed members of the minority community for the abduction. According to them, Prasad told them that some people from the minority community had been following him and forcing him to join their organisation.
“We fear that some unknown people kidnapped my father,” said his daughter.
On her complaint, the police registered an FIR under Section 365 (kidnapping or abducting) of the IPC.
On Thursday, the police said that they had found Prasad at Sarai Rohilla Railway Station when he was returning from Punjab’s Beas. The police disclosed that Prasad was not kidnapped, but had left his house out of mental distress.
“On sustained questioning, Prasad revealed that due to family and financial problems he was in tension and wanted to go away from his family. Therefore, he had sent the WhatsApp messages of ‘Sar Tan se Juda, Sar Tan se Juda’ text and logo of Popular Front of India and left for Beas, Punjab,” Deputy Commissioner of Police (Rohini) Guriqbal Singh Sidhu said.
According to reports, he was getting tired of frequent demands for money from his female friend.
A probe into the case found that the man had taken a loan of Rs 3 lakh for the education of one of his daughters and was unable to repay it.
The police said the man went to Jalandhar by train on Monday and threw away his mobile SIM cards on the way. The following day, he reached Beas and stayed at Radha Soami Satsang Beas.
Later, he boarded the train back to Delhi. “He had heard the name of PFI being a banned organisation. To escape from his domestic and loan problems, he decided to concoct the story of his abduction by terrorists,” an officer was quoted by Times of India.
The man was working as Admin in-charge at Government Sarvodaya Kanya Vidyalaya Nithal. One day, he had not come back to him after going to school.
Meanwhile, some people said that the incident could have been used to arrest some innocent people from the minority community.
“This is frightening! Imagine if an innocent person from the minority community was picked up for an alleged abduction! That’s been known to happen. But this is worse, this criminal use of prevalent bias to create a deliberate narrative of persecution and victimhood,” tweeted Geeta Seshu.
