Gurugram man in skullcap thrashed

GURUGRAM: A 25-year-old Muslim man, hailing from Bihar, was allegedly attacked for wearing a skullcap while returning from Sadar Bazar Jama Masjid after Isa namaz on Saturday night. He alleged that six men cornered him, by hurling abuses and saying no one is allowed to wear skullcap in the area, and then two of them thrashed him.
An FIR has been registered against unknown men at City police station under sections 153A (promoting enmity between groups on ground of religion), 147 (rioting), 149 (unlawful assembly), 323 (causing hurt) and 506 (criminal intimidation) of IPC. Police, however, claimed that Aalam had not mentioned communal angle, and there is a mismatch between his accusations in the police complaint and his media statement.
According to the FIR, Mohammad Barkat Aalam hails from Bihar’s Begusarai and lives as a tenant near the meat market in Jacobpura. He had arrived in the city around 20 days ago to learn tailoring, and was returning from the Sadar Bazar mosque around 10.15pm on Saturday when two men, who were allegedly drunk, accosted him. “I asked for help from four men on bikes nearby, but the two men who had first abused me said those on bikes were part of their gang. The bike-borne men joined them to abuse me, asking me to chant “Jai Sri Ram”. When I said, “Why should I?”, they threatened to feed me pork. They then pushed me to a corner, beat me up and threw my skullcap to the ground, before fleeing. There were many people at the spot, including some sanitation workers, but none came to my rescue,” Aalam told TOI.
Soon after, police reached the spot. By then, many people had gathered there, and they demanded action against the accused. Police took Aalam to Civil Hospital, where an examination confirmed that he suffered two blunt injuries.
Despite his disclosure to the media that one of his attackers had demanded he repeat Hindutva slogans and thrown his skullcap to the ground, police said in his complaint and FIR, Aalam, who has been left shocked and scared, has only mentioned they had abused and thrashed him. They said he was levelling the additional allegations under pressure of some people.
A senior police officer said Aalam hadn’t mentioned the communal angle in his complaint, adding he was initially reluctant to even file a complaint, saying it was a trivial scuffle, and only did so after police insisted. “We’re investigating the matter and request all not to spread rumours,” he added.
“There is a mismatch between Aalam’s complaint and his media statement. We’re probing that, and also trying to identify the accused using CCTV footage. Thus far, we’ve only inspected one, in which only the complainant and one accused can be seen involved in a scuffle. The accused will be arrested soon,” said Rajiv Yadav, ACP (city).
The incident has left local Muslims angry. “People are being targeted even when it’s Ramzan and they are offering namaz. Strict action needs to be taken or the situation may worsen. We’ll speak to the administration,” said a local on condition of anonymity.