Congress leader Rahul Gandhi on Tuesday said the incident in Ghaziabad in which an elderly Muslim man was allegedly beaten up was shameful for the society, evoking a sharp response from Uttar Pradesh Chief Minister Yogi Adityanath who accused him of тАЬspreading poison”. Tagging a report on the incident, Rahul Gandhi said, тАЬI am not willing to accept that true devotees of Lord Ram can do such a thing.” тАЬSuch cruelty is far removed from humanity and is shameful for both society and religion,” the former Congress chief tweeted in Hindi. The Ghaziabad Police have ruled out any communal angle in the incident, saying Sufi Abdul Samad was attacked by six men тАФ Hindus and Muslims тАФ who were unhappy over the amulets he had sold to them.
Citing the policeтАЩs statement, Adityanath tagged GandhiтАЩs tweet and said, тАЬThe first lesson Lord Ram taught was to тАШspeak the truthтАЩ which you have not done in your life.” Attacking Gandhi, he further said in his tweet in Hindi, тАЬYou should be ashamed that even after the police has put forth the truth, you are spreading poison in the society.” тАЬIn the greed of power, you are shaming humanity. Stop humiliating and defaming the people of Uttar Pradesh,” Adityanath said. Hitting out, BJP leader and Union minister Smriti Irani said that Gandhi, whose party тАЬdenied” the existence of Lord Ram in an affidavit and who himself has called Hindus terrorists, is тАЬdefaming” the name of Lord Ram and it comes as no surprise to anyone.
тАЬBut if you would have read the names written in the copy of the FIR, you would not have dared to tweet this because of the temptation of vote bank,” she tweeted in Hindi, tagging GandhiтАЩs tweet. CongressтАЩ chief spokesperson Randeep Surjewala hit back at Adityanath for his attack on Gandhi and raised the issue of alleged corruption in the handling of donations for the construction of the Ram temple.
Earlier, Minority Affairs Minister Mukhtar Abbas Naqvi said that a criminal incident was being given a communal angle by some and described it as a тАЬdangerous conspiracy”. The arrested youth have been identified as Kalloo and Adil. Apart from them, Polly, Arif, Mushahid and Parvesh Gurjar were also involved in the incident, Senior Superintendent of Police Amit Pathak said.
The Ghaziabad Police had earlier arrested Gurjar, who owns the house where the alleged incident took place. The purported video which went viral on social media shows four men beating Samad up, chopping his beard and asking him to chant тАШJai Shri RamтАЩ in the Loni area of Ghaziabad. However, in his complaint, Samad did not mention that his beard was cut and he was compelled to chant тАШJai Shri RamтАЩ.
Samad also practised occultism and had sold some amulets to Gurjar, purportedly to free one of his family members from some тАЬevil effect” but a dispute arose between the two as there was no desired result of the amulet, Superintendent of Police (Rural) Iraj Raja said. Showing his injuries in the video, Samad has said he was abducted from Gokulpuri area when he took an auto for Loni in Ghaziabad.
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