'Stop defaming UP': Yogi Adityanath lashes out at Rahul Gandhi over Ghaziabad viral video

Chief Minister Yogi Adityanath on Tuesday accused Congress leader Rahul Gandhi of defaming the people of Uttar Pradesh after the latter commented on a news article claiming that an elderly man was assaulted and forced to raise religious slogans in Ghaziabad.

Slamming the alleged incident, Gandhi had said it was hard to believe that the true devotees of Lord Ram could do such a thing. “Such cruelty is far from humanity and is shameful for both society and religion,” he tweeted in Hindi.

In a video that went viral on social media, a man accused four unidentified people of forcibly taking him to a deserted house in Ghaziabad, thrashing him and cutting his beard for not chanting 'Jai Shri Ram'.

The Ghaziabad police said it has already registered an FIR in the alleged incident that was reported two days later on June 7. Ghaziabad Senior SP Amit Pathak also said that Abdul Samad, a resident of Bulandshahr in UP, has not made such allegations in his complaint as made in the video. So far, two people have already been arrested in the matter and further investigation is underway.

CM Yogi slams Rahul Gandhi

Yogi Adityanath hit back at the Congress leader, saying that he should be ashamed of ‘spewing venom’ in the society by supporting false narratives even after hearing the truth from the police.

"The first lesson of Lord Shri Ram is to speak the truth, which you have never done in life. You should be ashamed that even after hearing the truth from the police, you are engaged in spewing venom in society. In the greed of power, you have put humanity to shame. Stop humiliating and defaming the people of Uttar Pradesh,” the CM said in response to the Congress leader’s tweet.

In the viral video, Abdul Samad alleged that the men offered him an auto ride, took him to an isolated spot and thrashed, forcing him to chant Jai Shri Ram. However, the police said the accused because he had sold them an amulet that they believed did not work. The police has already arrested a person named Parvesh Gurjar, who had taken the amulet from Samad. The officer said that the police called Samad repeatedly to join the investigation, but he did not return to the police.