BHOPAL: A Sindhi youth was allegedly abducted and tortured by at least six Muslim men in Madhya Pradesh capital Bhopal.
The six men allegedly tied a belt around the neck of the victim with one of the accused holding the other end of the belt like a leash and forced him to bark like a dog. The accused forced the victim, identified as Vijay, to convert to Islam.
The video of the abuse, which took place on May 9, has gone viral.
Vijay's Lokesh alleged that the six men were known to the victim. Lokesh also alleged that because of the six men, his brother became addicted to drugs and started stealing money and valuables from their house.
Lokesh alleged that they were forced to sell their house, which would have easily fetched Rs 22 lakh, for Rs 16 lakh, and for their safety shifted their house.
Enraged over the video, activists of right-wing Hindu outfits, including Bajrang Dal protested outside the Tila Jamalpura police station of old Bhopal on Monday.
They alleged that the station in-charge Anurag Lal, had failed to act on the complaint lodged by the Sindhi youth who had approached them several times seeking action against the perpetrators.
Taking cognizance of the matter, the MP home minister Narottam Mishra directed the Bhopal police commissioner Harinarayanchari Mishra to probe the video and act on the matter with results within 24 hours. Just a few hours later, CM Shivraj Singh Chouhan directed to invoke the National Security Act (NSA) against the accused.
A senior Bhopal police officer said three of the six accused, identified as Faizan Khan, Sameer Khan and Sahil alias Salauddin have been arrested and efforts are underway to arrest the remaining accused. The accused have been booked under IPC Sections 365, 341, 342, 323, 327, 294, 427 and 34, besides the provisions of the MP Religious Freedom Act.
The three accused already have dozen criminal cases, including murder and attempted murder cases.
As per police sources, the accused men and the victim know each other very well and there was some dispute between them over some social media posts, which happened due to their common friend Shahrukh.
