An 18-year-old Muslim boy was allegedly assaulted and forced to chant “Jai Shri Ram” by a group of youths in a busy market of Barra police station area of Kanpur city on Friday evening. The case was lodged against unidentified assailants on charges of promoting enmity on grounds of religion and assault on Saturday. The accused are yet to be identified. ASP Kanpur (South) Raveena Tyagi told The Sunday Express, “We have lodged a case against unidentified accused under IPC sections 153 A (Promoting enmity between different groups on grounds of religion, race, place of birth, residence, language, etc) and 323 (Punishment for voluntarily causing hurt). We are scanning the CCTV footage collected from the buildings near the spot and questioning people who may have been present to identify the accused.” Complainant Mohammad Lukman, who is a private contractor, told The Sunday Express, “My son Mohammad Taj was returning home from a madrasa at Usmanpur locality on Friday evening on his motorcycle when he was intercepted by four-five youths, also on bikes, at Barra-2 market. They blocked his way, parking their motorcycles in front of his. They first threw the skullcap he was wearing and then forced him to chant ‘Jai Shri Ram’. When my son refused, they abused him and beat him up. They broke his spectacles, too.” He further said, “Somehow, he escaped from the assailants and reached a nearby shop and sought help from the shopkeeper. He requested him to let him call his family from his phone. The shopkeeper refused to give his phone. The assailants left the place on their motorcycles and my son returned home. We immediately went back to the spot and asked the people around if anyone knew the assailants, but they all denied. We then called the police control room and later lodged a complaint at Barra police station.” SHO of Barra police station, Satish Kumar Singh said, “It was an incident of altercation. Taj overtook motorcycles of other people on the road and when the youths confronted him, they had an argument.”
