At least 20 men have been booked for allegedly assaulting a police officer and two Muslim men in Uttar Pradesh’s Firozabad, The Times of India reported on Saturday. The accused include three Bharatiya Janata Party Yuva Morcha members – Dheeraj Parashar, Uday Thakur and Lucky Garg. The incident is believed to have taken place on February 15.
“We rushed to find a group of drunk youths thrashing two men,” North Police Station House Officer Lokesh Bhati told The Indian Express. “We rescued the victims and sent them to South police station. A constable and I stayed back and they started misbehaving with us. They were abusing and asking to call the two men back.”
The officer said they had called for additional police help, but the accused managed to flee. The Muslim men filed a police complaint against 20 unidentified persons. The complainants alleged that the men had abused them and made derogatory remarks on their religion, The Indian Express reported.
“When they objected, they started beating them up,” Bhati said, adding that the accused had been booked for rioting and other relevant charges.
Senior officials on Saturday said that they were being pressurised to transfer Bhati to another police station after the incident. “The SHO is a hero who risked his life to save youths from the minority community so that a Kasganj-like situation does not arise,” Firozabad Superintendent of Police (City) Rajesh Kumar Singh told The Times of India. “He should be rewarded, not transferred.”
According to The Indian Express, authorities had suspended mobile internet services on Friday and security was tightened after the incident.
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