Samajwadi Party leader slapped with FIR for giving communal spin to Ghaziabad incident

The Ghaziabad Police's crackdown on the viral video of an elderly man from Uttar Pradesh intensified on Wednesday as it filed an FIR against Samajwadi Party leader Ummed Pahalwan Idrisi. Appearing in a Facebook live alongside Idrisi, Abdul Samad Saifi alleged that he was assaulted, his beard was forcibly cut and asked to chant slogans of Jai Shri Ram and Vande Mataram on June 6. The Samajwadi Party leader has been accused of giving a communal spin to the incident. 

In the FIR, the police stated, “The accused made an unnecessary video with the complainant and, without verifying the facts of the case, carried out religious discussions on his Facebook, which spread animosity in the community. The accused attempted to give the incident a communal colour and disturb the societal balance. This act hurt religious sentiments. The particular act presented a threat to law and order and tried to divide between Hindus and Muslim community.”

As per the FIR, he has been charged under Section 67 of the IT Act (Punishment for publishing or transmitting obscene material in electronic form) and Sections 153-A (promoting enmity on grounds of religion), 295-A (deliberate act to outrage religious feelings), 504 (Intentional insult with intent to provoke breach of the peace) and 505 (statements conducing to public mischief) of the Indian Penal Code. This case was registered at the Loni Border Police Station in Ghaziabad. A day earlier, the police had registered a case against AltNews co-founder Muhammad Zubair, Congress leaders Maskoor Usmani, Salman Nizami and Shama Mohamed, journalists Saba Naqvi and Rana Ayyub, news publication The Wire and Twitter over contentious social media posts regarding this case. 

Here is a copy of the FIR:

Police arrest 5 accused

Amid a flurry of reactions from political parties including AIMIM, the police issued a clarification on Tuesday. According to the Ghaziabad (Rural) SP Iraj Raja, it was established that the victim not only knew his attackers but also made amulets for them. He added that the accused reacted in such a manner after the amulets did not give positive results as promised by Abdul Samad Saifi. Additionally, the officer promised that the strictest possible action will be taken in this case. 

The police officer remarked, "He (the victim) knew these boys for a long time. He makes amulets and he made amulets for Parvesh and the other boys too. They were dissatisfied regarding this and beat him up after calling him there. We have traced almost all boys. While Parvesh is already in jail, Kullu and Aadil have also been arrested."

On Wednesday, two more accused- Intezaar and Saddam alias Bauna were arrested in connection with this case. Also, the police stated that it will also take action against the complainant for providing some wrong facts. Meanwhile, Twitter refused to comment on being named in the FIR in this case.