A petty argument among neighbours in Kanpur’s Kachchi Basti locality in Barra area snowballed into communal tension after a Muslim man was dragged out of his house, beaten up, and forced to chant Jai Shri Ram by a mob, even as his minor daughter kept pleading with the attackers to let him go. The mob, allegedly comprising Bajrang Dal activists, claimed the man, a 45-year-old e-rickshaw driver, was involved in the forced conversion of a girl. A one-minute video of the incident went viral, in which the daughter of the victim was seen clinging on to him and begging the mob to spare her father.
Preliminary investigation revealed the man’s family members were involved in a dispute with their Hindu neighbours. Both parties had filed police complaints against each other – the Muslim family alleging assault and the Hindu family accusing the former of molesting a minor in their house and trying to convert her.
After the video of the man’s thrashing went viral, the police filed a first information report against the owner of a brass band company and his aides who were a part of the mob that attacked him. The police said that security had been deployed in the area and search was on for the people who tried to “disturb peace”.
