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Damoh/ Madhya Pradesh: Four persons have been booked in Madhya Pradesh’s Damoh district for forcing a man to wash the feet of a Brahmin man and drink the water, The Hindu reported.
The man faced the outrageous act for allegedly posting an “offensive” artificial intelligence-generated image of the Brahmin man on social media, according to Scroll.
It all began after Purushottam Kushwaha had an argument with Anuj Pandey, who is a Brahmin, over the decision by residents of Satariya village to ban the sale and consumption of liquor.
Kushwaha later allegedly posted on social media an artificial intelligence-generated image of Pandey wearing a garland of shoes.
Nevertheless Kushwaha deleted the image within 15 minutes of posting alongside issuing an apology, there triggered outrage in the village.
The Hindu reported citing police that Kushwaha was allegedly taken to a temple where he was forced to wash Pandey’s feet ‘to apologise for sharing an AI-edited picture of him wearing a shoe garland’.
Alongside forcing Kushwaha to apologise to Pandey and the Brahmin community, he was slapped with a penalty of Rs 5,100.
Footage is reported to be circulating online showing Kushwaha washing Pandey’s feet alongside saying ‘I am apologising to the Brahmin community. Such a mistake will not happen again. We will keep worshipping the Brahmins like this’.
The Hindu reported citing Damoh Superintendent of Police Shrut Kirti Somvanshi that Pandey and three relatives are charged with obscene acts, promoting enmity between groups under sections of the Bharatiya Nyaya Sanhita.
The Indian Express quoted Pandey as saying that there was ‘guru-shishya relationship’ between him and Kushwaha, and ‘He apologised for the mistake he made’.
Pandey reportedly said that he apologized to ‘the Kushwaha community if they feel hurt because he washed my feet’, adding that people from the OBC background made the video into ‘a political issue’.
The Congress came down heavily on the state’s BJP administration saying that the incident was a ‘disgrace to humanity’.
‘Purushottam Kushwaha was threatened and forced to declare that he would worship Brahmins for the rest of his life,’ the party said, pointing out that ‘This incident is a disgrace to humanity. It is against the Constitution.’