The Uttar Pradesh Police on Saturday filed a case of dacoity against a man who was lynched by a mob earlier this month, The Times of India reported.
The man, Mohammed Farid alias Aurangzeb, was lynched allegedly on the suspicion of theft in Aligarh on June 18. He was allegedly hit with iron rods and dragged through the streets of the city’s Mamu Bhanja locality.
On Saturday, the police booked Farid and eight others for dacoity and molestation under the Indian Penal Code.
The complaint in the dacoity case was filed by Suman, the wife of a cloth trader named Mukesh Mittal. She alleged that on June 18, eight to nine persons, including Farid, barged into their house and snatched her gold chain at gunpoint.
The complainant alleged that the accused persons tried to molest her and other women in the house. “When they were escaping, one among them fell on a staircase and was overpowered by my husband and the son while others, including the one left in the house, managed to escape,” she alleged, according to The Indian Express.
Aligarh City Superintendent of Police Mrigank Shekhar Pathak said that the police have filed cases following complaints from both sides. He added that six persons have been arrested in the alleged lynching case, which has been filed based on a complaint by Farid’s brother Zaki.
Zaki, in his complaint, alleged that the mob attacked his brother only after coming to know that he was a Muslim. He claimed that the dacoity case was filed against Farid “under pressure from politicians and right-wing functionaries to divert attention from his murder”, according to The Times of India.
On Saturday, Uttar Pradesh Congress chief Ajai Rai, accompanied by two MPs, visited Farid’s home and accused Chief Minister Adityanath’s government of persecuting Muslims.
“The Congress is with the bereaved family and will launch an agitation if any attempt is made to implicate the family members of the deceased in fake cases,” Rai said. “Our MPs will raise the issue in the Parliament.”
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