Note: Later reports suggests the main accused’s name is Parvez Gujjar and not Parvesh Gujjar.
Startling new details have surfaced in the case of the assault of Abdul Samad Saifi in Loni in UP, which had gone viral on the internet after Alt News co-founder Mohammed Zubair shared it on Twitter claiming that the man was assaulted and forced to chant Jai Shri Ram. The Ghaziabad police promptly busted the propaganda, stating that the incident was related to personal enmity and had no religious angle.
Journalist Swati Goel Sharma of Swarajya Magazine shared the sequence of the events before the video went viral on social media websites. According to Sharma, Abdul, who was into the business of selling occult amulets, was beaten on June 5 by the assaulters because the talisman sold by him did not work as promised. However, Abdul did not file a police complaint against his attackers.
On June 7, a local Samajwadi Party man, Umed Pahalwan did a Facebook live along with Abdul in which he claimed that Abdul was beaten by miscreants who forced him to chant Jai Shri Ram slogans. This is how police came to know about Abdul’s assault and approached him to get the details of the incident.
Abdul was beaten on 5 June. He did not file a police complaint. Then SP leader Ummed Pahalwan did a Facebook live on 7 June with Jai Shri ram claims. That’s how police learnt about it and approached Abdul. Muted video of the beating surfaced after a weekhttps://t.co/abjprKHpe3
— Swati Goel Sharma (@swati_gs) June 15, 2021
The FIR was filed on June 7 after police took cognisance of the claims made by Umed Pahalwan in his Facebook Live session. However, in his statement to police, Abdul made no mention of Jai Shri Ram slogans. He failed to identify any of the attackers and pretended he did not know any one of them, even though Parvesh was one of his client to whom he had sold an occult amulet.
Abdul’s statement in the FIR filed on 7 June around 8 pm, after the Facebook live by Ummed Idrisi. The statement makes no mention on Jai Shri Ram
— Swati Goel Sharma (@swati_gs) June 15, 2021
Also, Abdul failed to identify any of the attackers and pretended he didn’t know any even though one of them, Parvesh, was his client pic.twitter.com/NlAHnknJiG
The SP of the region told Swati that Abdul was not keen on filing a complaint against his attackers. He said Abdul did not come to the police station even once despite several reminders. He came to the police station on the night of June 14 but left briefly after complaining of stomach ache. The SP, who has watched the original video of assault said that there was no mention of Jai Shri Ram in the video. All he could hear was Parvesh and others accusing Abdul of cheating them.
Swati’s team also spoke to Parvesh’s maternal aunt, who admitted that Abdul knew who Parvesh was and had been visiting his family for the last three months. Yet, in the FIR, Abdul claimed that he knew none of his assaulters. His aunt revealed Parvesh took the services of Abdul on the recommendation of his friend Intezaar.
However, Parvesh claimed that far from proving beneficial, the amulet started showing negative effects starting with the miscarriage of Parvesh’s wife and later with his home temple catching fire. This enraged Parvesh and he, along with his friends, accosted Abdul and assaulted him over the effectiveness of the amulet.
Alt News co-founder Mohammed Zubair tries to defame Jai Shri Ram over a petty squabble
A nefarious attempt to give a communal twist to a seemingly ordinary criminal incident was made by Alt News co-founder Mohammed Zubair when he posted a mute version of the video to allege that one Sufi Abdul Samad Saifi was attacked by five goons in Loni, Ghaziabad, and was forced to chant Jai Shri Ram.
Zubair, who has a knack for peddling lies and misinformation on social media platforms, also shared a video in which Saifi was testifying that he was assaulted in the name of Jai Shri Ram. While speaking about the matter, Abdul Samad Saifi claimed that he was about to board an autorickshaw but was stopped by the accused. He said that his face was covered with a handkerchief and taken to an undisclosed location. Saifi alleged that he was locked inside a room and brutally thrashed. He also claimed that the miscreants had forced him to chant ‘Jai Shri Ram’ at gunpoint. “They told me that they have killed several Muslims in the past and will do the same to me,” Saifi further alleged.
It is noteworthy to mention that the video of the assault does not contain any audio, which can verify the claim that Saifi was coerced into chanting ‘Jai Shri Ram’ or ‘Ram Ram’. Moreover, the victim had alleged that a gun was used by the accused to intimidate him although it wasn’t visible in the video footage.
Many social media warriors and prejudiced journalists nonetheless bought into this fiction and started sharing the video online to vilify Hindus and allege that an elderly man was browbeaten, threatened, assaulted and forced to chant ‘Jai Shri Ram’.
Ghaziabad Police issues clarification after the case is brazenly communalised on social media
In a tweet, Ghaziabad police informed that three accused had been arrested in the case. According to the police, the incident took place about 10 days ago on June 5, 2021. The victim Abdul Samad Saifi had travelled to the Loni border from Bulandshahr, where he was escorted to the house of accused Parvesh Gujjar in Banthala in Loni. After some time, the co-accused, namely, Kallu, Poli, Arif, Adil aka Mushahid arrived at Parvesh’s house and began thrashing the victim.
The victim Saifi sold amulets for a living. According to the police, the accused were miffed after the amulet proved harmful to them. Unlike what the victim had alleged, the police said that he knew the culprits for a long time. Reportedly, Saifi had sold his amulets to several people in the village through the accused. The police had initially arrested Parvesh while Adil and Kallu were nabbed on Monday (June 14). A case has been registered against them under relevant sections of the Indian Penal Code (IPC). The cops assured that the other culprits would soon be arrested.
