Uttarakhand Police and Haridwar Police on Tuesday said no desecration of the holy Quran took place in Haridwar and said that the YouTuber who posted a video of burning and stomping on the Islamic holy book has not been staying in Haridwar and Padli Gurjar village of Roorkee. The statement came after outrage erupted over a purported video of the YouTuber who goes by social media name Ex-Muslim Sameer showed him burning pages from the Quran and disrespecting it. The video had gone viral on social media and angry users had demanded action against the YouTuber by the Uttarakhand Police as they believed he resided in the state.
"In the referred case, Ex Muslim Sameer has not been living in a place called 'Padli Gurjar' for the past approximately three years, and there has been no incident of desecration of the holy Quran anywhere in the Haridwar district. Therefore, do not share the case without information; otherwise, legal action may be taken against you," Haridwar Police in a post on X.
Similarly, Uttarakhand Police confirmed that no desecration of Quran happened in Haridwar or Padli Gurjar region in Roorkee ; however, the authorities have launched an investigation into the matter and asked people to not share any such inflammatory videos.
"There has been no incident of desecration of the holy Quran anywhere in Haridwar, and ex-Muslim Sameer is not living in a place called 'Padli Gurjar.' The matter is under investigation. Strict legal action will be taken against those who post such videos," the Uttarakhand Police said in a X post.
Masive Outrage On Social Media
On Monday, social media was flooded with angry posts against Ex Muslim Sameer. The purported video showed the YouTuber allegedly stomping on the Quran. Pages were also torn from the Quran and burned, according to the purported video.
Several users called for strict against the YouTuber and demanded the police to arrest him. They also began trending the hashtag #ArrestExMuslimSameer which as of 1:30 pm on May 28, received over 2 lakh posts on X.
Who is Ex Muslim Sameer?
The YouTuber identifies himself as a former Muslim and has amassed over 2,08,000 subscribers on the video-sharing platform. According to him, he has changed his name to Siddharth Chaturvedi. In his Instagram bio, he describes himself as an "ex-Muslim", "sanatani", "humanist" and "free thinker".
Chaturvedi is known for his inflammatory views on Islam and has often used provocative and offensive imagery in his videos for topic related to the religion.
This January, he launched e-book '5 Unanswered Questions About Islam From Quran'.
