A day after a video showing three Muslim minors being assaulted and told to chant Jai Shri Ram was circulated on social media, police have filed an FIR against two minor suspects and arrested one of them in Ratlam district of Madhya Pradesh.
“The accused who leaked the video is absconding. We have arrested the accused who was seen assaulting the minors in the video. We have produced him in a juvenile court and sent him to a remand home. Our team is searching for the other accused and we will arrest him soon,” said Surendra Singh Garadiya, SHO of Manak police station where a case was filed under BNS sections 296, 115(2), 126(2), 351(2), 196, and 3(5).
The three victims are aged seven, 11 and 13 years, and are students of classes 2, 5, and 6, respectively. The accused, who was seen assaulting them and is in custody, is 17 years old.
“I, along with my two friends, went for an outing near Amrit Sagar Talab around one and a half months ago. While we were sitting there, two people came there and asked our names. After which they started hurling abuses at us and then assaulted us. They dared us to chant Allah…they forced us to chant Jai Shri Ram and made a video of us while one of them was assaulting us. Then they threatened to kill us if we revealed the incident to anyone,” the 13-year-old minor said in the complaint to the police.
Imran Khokhar, an activist who helped the 13-year-old’s family file the case, alleged the incident took place a month ago but the video was leaked by a suspect when he was “drunk”. “He shared the video for amusement…the three victims were so terrified that they had kept the incident to themselves.”
The six-year-old lives with his grandmother and aunt and had lost his parents in an accident around 10 months ago, said Khokhar. “After he learnt that the video had been leaked, he locked himself in his room…we had to enlist the help of the police to break down the door.”
The father of the 13-year-old complainant told Newslaundry, “For the past month and a half, he’s been acting differently. He avoids going to school, no longer plays outside, and even when he came to my vegetable cart, he insisted on having someone accompany him. At the time, I didn’t realise he had been subjected to such harassment. When we saw the video, it was deeply disturbing. I’ve reassured him not to worry anymore, but those responsible should face harsh punishment to prevent such incidents from happening again.”
The father of another victim said, “I asked my son why he hadn’t told anyone about it. He seemed to be behaving normally, but perhaps he was too scared to speak up. The atmosphere in our country has become so toxic that even young children are falling victim to hatred.”
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