Dhanbad: Jharkhand Chief Minister Hemant Soren has ordered a probe into an incident that occurred in Dhanbad, involving a group of BJP workers who were allegedly caught on video thrashing a Muslim man and forcing him to chant Hindu slogans like "Jai Shri Ram". The viral video prompted outrage online after which the Dhanbad deputy commissioner has the order from the CM to investigate and take appropriate action.
The BJP workers in the video were protesting the Prime Minister's security breach issue, which occurred on January 5, where the PM's convoy was stuck on a flyover after being blocked by farmers protesting against the now-repealed farm laws.
The viral video shows the Muslim man being forced to lick the ground, do push-ups and being slapped by a group of men after he admits he is a Muslim. The authenticity of the video is yet to be ascertained. A Hindustan Times report claimed he had been identified as a resident of Shamsher Nagar in Wasseypur in Dhanbad. His younger brother told HT that the man was mentally unstable and was under treatment at the Central Institute of Psychiatry in Ranchi.
"Dhanbad DC should probe the incident and revert with action taken report. There is no space for animosity in the state where people love to live in peace," Soren said in a tweet, in response to a post about the incident.
"Only three of us live in our home. Both me and my mother do private job. We both were out when my brother left home. He has returned home after the incident. Though we are yet to decide on lodging a formal complaint against those who mistreated him, they should not have done what they did. Even if he abused them, they should not have forced him to chant religious slogan and force his to spit and lick the road. They could have handed him over to police," the brother of the victim in the video told Hindustan Times.
However, Dhanbad BJP legislator Raj Sinha said that the incident was provoked by the man who appeared at the protest and began insulting people there for no reason, after which he was dragged off. He said that a probe was needed to establish whether it was a conspiracy and added that the incident was being highlighted solely for political reasons.