In just 3 days, another fake incident of ‘Jai Shri Ram’ slogan being forced has come to fore in the city of Aurangabad. In the latest case, the alleged victim Aamer reportedly contrived a story that the 4 youths he had an altercation with had forced him to chant ‘Jai Shri Ram’ slogan and filed his complaint on this basis at the police station to seek grandstanding from members of his community.
However, barely a day after filing a complaint that some persons had forcibly asked him to chant ‘Jai Shri Ram’, the alleged victim Aamer went back on his statement. Aamer conceded that he fabricated the story of ‘Jai Shri Ram’ slogan being enforced upon him to raise his stature among his community members and teach those who dare to challenge people from his community a lesson.
Aamer said to the police that the minor scuffle he had with the car driver at Bajrang Chowk instantly reminded him of the Hudco corner incident and he was determined to teach the car driver a lesson and getting him punished and thus elevate his standing among his community members. He, therefore, filed a false report in the police station alleging that the car driver and his friends forced him into chanting ‘Jai Shri Ram’ and threatened him with violence for not abiding by their demands.
According to the reports, Sheikh Aamer, working with food ordering app Zomato, and his friend Shaikh Nasir were travelling on a bike to collect a takeaway from a restaurant when four to five men in a car had a trifling brawl with the duo while their bike brush past the car at a turn. After Aamer gave a communal flair to the incident falsely accusing the youths of browbeating them into chanting ‘Jai Shri Ram’, the police had arrested 4 of them.
The four arrested are engineering students. Their car has been seized by the police. They have been charged under sections 153A (promoting enmity between different groups on grounds of religion, race and doing acts prejudicial to the maintenance of harmony), 295A (deliberate and malicious acts intended to outrage religious feelings of any class by insulting its religion or religious beliefs) and 506 (criminal intimidation). All the four arrested acknowledged that they had a petty quarrel on the turning but vehemently denied of asking the Zomato duo to chant ‘Jai Shri Ram’ slogans.
A couple of days back, a similar false report alleging intimidation by miscreants to chant ‘Jai Shri Ram’ was filed by Imran Ismail Patel. Patel, a hotel employee, said in his complaint that a gang of around ten goons stopped him near Hudco Corner in Begumpura area when he was returning home on a motorbike in the early hours and forced him to chant ‘Jai Shri Ram’. However, a couple who came to his rescue claimed that Patel wasn’t intimidated for raising religious slogans but the altercation occurred due to some old personal feud.