Ghaziabad Loni incident: 'Case of personal dispute' says UP Police, 3 accused arrested

On Tuesday, June 15, Ghaziabad Police filed FIR against nine entities, including Twitter India in connection with the Loni incident, where a man was thrashed and his beard was chopped off. In a recent development, police have said that the entities have spread the message in a way bringing in differences between the two religion. 

The Police, in the FIR, said, "There is no communal angle to the incident in Loni where a man was thrashed and his beard was chopped off. The following entities -- The Wire, Rana Ayyub, Mohammad Zubair, Dr Shama Mohammed, Saba Naqvi, Maskoor Usmani, Salman Nizami -- without checking the fact, started giving communal colour to the incident on Twitter and suddenly they started spreading messages to disrupt the peace and bring differences between the religious communities."

Police further informed that Twitter had done nothing to prevent the video from getting viral, and named "Twitter, Twitter Communications India Pvt, The Wire, Rana Ayyub, Mohammad Zubair, Dr Shama Mohamed, Saba Naqvi, Maskoor Usmani, Salman Nizami".

The FIR said, "The victim Abdul Samad Sufi and the accused have known each other for a long time. The victim sold a tabeez (amulet) to the key accused with the promise that it will bring him prosperity but he [Parvesh] complained that it had an adverse effect on his family. When the tabeez did not work, the accused got angry and had beaten the victim".

It further informed that a case in the matter has been filed and Ghaziabad police have arrested the three accused who had trashed the elderly victim.

Ghaziabad's Loni incident

In Ghaziabhad's Loni, an elderly Muslim man, Abdul Samad Saifi, was physically assaulted and harassed by a mob. The Muslim man had claimed that he was held at gun- point by a mob who forced him to chant a religious slogan. Saifi claimed that when he refused to comply, the mob brutally assaulted him with sticks and even chopped off his beard. A video of the victim had gone viral on Twitter, in which he can be seen pleading, while the mob attacked him with sticks and bare hands. Meanwhile, AIMIM chief Assaduddin Owaisi lashed out at Hindutva ideology, holding it responsible for the incident. 

(Image Credit: PTI)