Ghaziabad attack: Victim's family denies police claims

Ghaziabad: Abdul Samad, the old man who was brutally tortured and forced to chant "Jai Sri Ram", denied the state police claims that he is an amulet seller, reports NDTV. Abdul Samad's son Babloo Saifi told NDTV that his father and other family members are not amulet sellers but carpenters.

The new development occurred hours after a case was filed for allegedly inciting communal sentiments against Twitter and eight others, including journalists and Congress leaders, for posting about Abdul Samad's incident.

Abdul Samad's son told NDTV that the police are not telling the "right thing" and they should investigate. He further said that he had filed an FIR at Loni police station on June 6, describing his father's abduction and torture. Abdul Samad was taken to a forest area, locked up in a room and tortured for four hours.

However, the police said that there were six people amongst the attackers, including Hindus and Muslims, but there is no communal angle in the incident. In a video statement, they said that he was beaten for selling amulets that "didn't work" and that three people had been arrested so far based on Samad's complaint.

Journalists Rana Ayyub, Saba Naqvi, and Congress leaders Salman Nizami, Shama Mohamed and Maskoor Usmani were among those who were charged with IPC sections 153 (provocation for rioting), 153A (promoting enmity between different groups), 295A (acts intended to outrage religious feelings), 505 (mischief), 120B (criminal conspiracy) and 34 (common intention), for sharing "misleading posts". Twitter was accused of inaction after Ghaziabad police sought clarification regarding the posts on Monday.

This is the first case filed against Twitter after the Centre imposed the new social media guidelines. Union Minister Ravi Shankar Prasad tweeted that what happened in UP was illustrative of Twitter's arbitrariness and inconsistency in fighting fake news.