A 25-year-old bangle vendor who was beaten up in Indore a few days ago by a mob has been arrested for allegedly touching a girl inappropriately and also for forgery, the police said on Wednesday. Taslim Ali was thrashed in Indore’s Govind Nagar locality on Sunday for allegedly using a “fake name” while selling bangles to women in the locality. Four people were arrested in connection with the assault.
Ali, a native of Hardoi in Uttar Pradesh, has now been arrested under POCSO Act for allegedly touching a 13-year-old girl inappropriately, Indore Superintendent of police Ashutosh Bagri said. A police team has been sent to Hardoi to verify the two Aadhaar Cards with different names recovered from Ali's bag, he said, adding that a burnt voter's identity card was also found in which the name of his father was mentioned as Mohan Singh.
Ali was produced through video link before special judge for POCSO cases, Suman Shrivastav, who remanded him in judicial custody till September 3. According to the police, a Class 6 student had lodged a complaint alleging that Ali had introduced himself as “Golu, son of Mohan Singh”, when he arrived at her house to sell bangles on Sunday, and after describing her as “very beautiful”, he tried to “touch her inappropriately”.
As per Ali's own police complaint on Sunday, five to six people, who were part of a mob, started beating him up after asking his name. They also snatched away Rs 10,000 in cash, a mobile phone, Aadhaar Card and other documents besides bangles worth over Rs 25,000, he alleged.
A video of the assault also went viral on social media. On Tuesday, Madhya Pradesh Home Minister Narottam Mishra had said that “those who carry two-three different identity cards are criminals”. “Those who hide their names are criminals. The police have registered a case against those who have beaten up the man and arrested them,” he said, responding to AIMIM chief Asaduddin Owaisi's allegation that the BJP government in MP was shielding the accused who beat up Ali.
