A video of an elderly Muslim man being assaulted and abused by some co-passengers on a train in Maharashtra claiming that he was carrying beef has sparked widespread criticism on social media.
The video showed a group of men abusing and repeatedly slapping the man, Haji Ashraf Munyar, and asking him if the meat he was carrying was beef. The assault reportedly took place near the town of Igatpuri in the Nashik district.
The Government Railway Police in the Thane district on Saturday filed a first information report in the matter. A railway police official told Scroll that the incident was from August 28.
Munyar, a resident of the Jalgaon district, was said to have been travelling to his daughter’s home in the city of Kalyan near Mumbai.
“We have taken cognisance of the video and identified the victim,” PTI quoted an unidentified official as saying. “Some of the people involved in the attack have also been identified, and a probe is on.”
The accused men have been booked under sections of the Bharatiya Nyaya Sanhita pertaining to rioting, unlawful assembly, wrongful restraint, causing hurt, criminal intimidation, mischief causing loss or damage and intentional insult with intent to provoke breach of peace, The Indian Express reported.
Commenting on the assault, All India Majlis-e-Ittehadul Muslimeen leader and former Aurangabad MP Imtiaz Jaleel said that citizens could no longer remain silent spectators to such crimes. He said that all secular-minded Indians should come together to defeat forces of hatred.
“How so much poison has spread among these men and how could they even think of doing such a thing to somebody who maybe their grandfathers age?” he asked in a social media post. “Enough of giving memorandums and expressing our anger on social media. If govt and police is turning a blind eye then we as a community need to stand and counter these forces.”
Imran Pratapgarhi, the chairperson of the Congress’ minority department, remarked that the assault was representative of Prime Minister Narendra Modi’s new India. “An entire crowd of people is assaulting an elderly Muslim passenger in a train, and all of this is happening under official protection,” he said.
Several other social media users also put out videos of the assault and urged authorities to take stringent action.