4 min readDehradunUpdated: Oct 2, 2026 10:19 PM IST
A day after his arrest following a complaint by a businessman alleging that he had abused, assaulted and threatened him, Kotdwar gym owner Deepak Kumar alias ‘Mohammad’ Deepak was released after executing a bond on Friday evening, police officials said.
Deepak was produced before a magistrate on Friday and asked to execute a bond assuring that he would not disturb peace and would maintain harmony, police officers told The Indian Express. He was subsequently released on bail on Friday evening.
The development comes a day after businessman Sanjeev Tonk lodged a complaint against Deepak at Kotdwar Kotwali, alleging that the two had an altercation following an interaction on a social media post, which the complainant claims was on the partial demolition of a mosque in Ujjain, Madhya Pradesh.
The arrest and allegations against Deepak have also been reported by other outlets.
When contacted by The Indian Express, Deepak declined to comment.
However, people close to Deepak gave a different account of what led to Thursday’s confrontation, alleging that Tonk had been “harassing” Deepak since the January incident.
According to a person close to Deepak, Tonk and Deepak had known each other for several years. The source said that after the January incident — when Deepak came into the spotlight following a confrontation with members of the Bajrang Dal in Kotdwar — Tonk began maintaining distance from him because of differences over their “ideas and ideology”.
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The source further alleged that since January, Tonk had been passing comments about Deepak. According to the source, the confrontation on Thursday morning began when Deepak was on his way to his mother’s tea shop, located on the same street as Tonk’s garment shop.
“Tonk heckled him. That is when Deepak stopped and went to him and requested him to stop passing comments,” the source alleged.
Tonk, however, has denied the allegation, saying his interaction with Deepak never went beyond exchanging greetings over the years. He also claimed his first interaction with Deepak was over the social media post. This, he claimed, was followed by a tussle.
“On Thursday morning, after the interaction on the post, I was at my garment shop in Kotdwar with my friends. Deepak came and yelled at me and manhandled me,” Tonk alleged. “After that, I felt unsafe and went to the police on Thursday afternoon and filed a complaint.”
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What the complaint says
In his handwritten complaint to police on October 1, Tonk alleged that Deepak came to his shop and abused and threatened him following the dispute. Police initially registered a case under Sections 351(2) (criminal intimidation) and 352 (intentional insult with intent to provoke breach of peace) of the Bharatiya Nyaya Sanhita (BNS). They later added Section 115 (voluntarily causing hurt) and Section 196 (promoting enmity between different groups).
Deepak was arrested under Section 170 of the Bharatiya Nagarik Suraksha Sanhita (BNSS) as a preventive measure, with police citing the possibility of a disturbance to peace and law and order. Police also carried out a flag march in Kotdwar on Thursday evening.
Deepak first came into the spotlight in January after confronting members of the Bajrang Dal during a dispute involving an elderly Muslim shopkeeper in Kotdwar. The confrontation was reportedly over the use of the word “Baba” in the name of the shopkeeper’s establishment.
During the confrontation, Deepak identified himself as “Mohammad Deepak”. A video of the incident subsequently went viral on social media, after which he came to be known by that name, police have said.
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Police have said they would continue taking action against those attempting to take the law into their own hands, issuing threats, spreading animosity or disturbing peace.
The police have maintained that “maintaining peace, security and harmony in the district is the police’s highest priority.”
