State and central intelligence agencies interrogated a Kashmiri youth after a video of him being attacked by a mob in Neemrana in Alwar district of Rajasthan started doing the rounds on social media, India Today reported on Thursday. The youth, identified as Mir Faiz, was allegedly tied to a pole and beaten up by a mob for being dressed in women’s clothes.
While the student registered a first information report for the alleged assault, Alwar Police also started an investigation into the matter and was on the lookout for the main accused. The case was reportedly transferred to the intelligence agencies after Faiz, who is a resident of Sopore in Jammu and Kashmir, could not explain why he was dressed as a woman.
The investigating agencies searched the student’s room and seized his mobile and laptop. However, police said that they had found nothing suspicious yet. “It was a case of youth beaten up late in the night,” Neemrana Station House Officer Ajay Singh was quoted as saying. “He is being interrogated by the IB [Intelligence Bureau] team currently. The matter is being investigated.”
The student’s brother, Faisal, however, said that the Kashmiri student had been accosted by three men who had forced him to get onto a bike. “They took him to an isolated place where he was forced to wear a woman’s clothes,” The Quint quoted Faisal as saying. “They then instructed him to walk around the market in those clothes. They threatened to kill him if he did not. He tried to walk into an ATM and change his clothes but panicked, when he came out he was caught by a crowd, tied to a pillar and repeatedly slapped.”
On the basis of the student’s complaint, the police have filed an FIR under section 323 [voluntarily causing hurt], 506 [criminal intimidation], 505 [intent to cause hurt], 143 [unlawful assembly], 341 [wrongful restraint] and 342 [wrongful confinement] under the Indian Penal Code. An unidentified police official told The Quint that the authorities wanted to ensure that this was not a case of child-lifting as there had been a lot of rumours of that in the area.
However, Faisal alleged that his brother was being treated like a criminal and that he had been locked up since Wednesday night. The Kashmiri student had reportedly told his brother that he was unable to hear in his left ear.
Faisal asserted that the student needed medical attention immediately and expressed concern that a case may have been filed against him.
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