Team Clarion
RANCHI – A 40-year-old Muslim auto-rickshaw driver was brutally assaulted, abused and forced to chant ‘Jai Shri Ram’ by a Hindutva mob of roughly 20 people in Jharkhand’s capital Ranchi on Tuesday.
The victim, Mahmud Alam, in his complaint filed at Lalpur police station, said: “When I was taking passengers, a group of 15-20 people assaulted me and broke my mobile. They also robbed Rs 1500 which I had. I escaped to protect my life. Else, they would have killed me”.
Talking to local media, Alam said that some people stopped him while he was transporting passengers. One of them sat beside me while others demanded money. As he began taking out money to comply with their demand, they began assaulting him. Alam further stated that he attempted to escape, but they apprehended him and thrashed him severely.
“They plucked my beard. They were hitting me with whatever they were getting. One person struck me with a bat, while another used a pipe. I sustained a deep injury to my head,” said Alam, who has been operating an auto for 15 years but had never experienced such an attack before.
Dr. Tariq Hussain, secretary of Anjuman Islamia, Ranchi, said that they have come to know about the assault on Alam. They visited his house and found that he was assaulted brutally. He had multiple injuries in his head and other parts of the body. Blood also oozed out from his mouth, said Hussain.
“A case has been registered. But there is an issue in his medical report prepared by the Sadar hospital. In the injury report, the doctor only mentioned “reddish” before all the injured parts of the body. The doctor should have prepared a proper injury report. If you describe deep injury as reddish only, it is an injustice with the victim,” said Hussain.
The culprits should be punished so that such incidents should not be repeated, he demanded.
The state leaders of the All India Majlis-e-Ittehadul Muslimeen (AIMIM) also visited the victim and demanded swift action against the culprits. They also urged the “secular leaders” to take cognizance of the incident.
Samir Ali, the state secretary of AIMIM, said that such incidents continue unabated because a particular party promotes such elements by garlanding them and using other methods when they come out of jail. He demanded that a ban should be imposed on such groups. It is to be noted that former Union Minister and BJP leader Jayant Sinha greeted and garlanded eight cow vigilantes, who were convicted in Ramgarh lynching case and were released on bail in 2018.
