Samajwadi Party leader Umed Pahalwan Idris, who appeared in a Facebook Live video alongside Ghaziabad assault victim Abdul Samad, was arrested by the Uttar Pradesh police in Delhi on Saturday.
After trying to evade the arrest, Pahalwan has now confessed to having used the Ghaziabad crime by giving it a communal angle to gain political mileage ahead of the UP state assembly elections.
As per a News18 report, as soon as Pahalwan got to know of the incident, he instructed the victim Abdul Samad to report the matter to Loni Border police as he claims to be influential in that area. He also interfered in the drafting of the complaint and scripted the communal Facebook Live with the victim.
Pahalwan reportedly even deleted some Whatsapp chats from his mobile phone to evade scrutiny. Ghaziabad Police is trying to retrieve his digital records through IPDR.
SSP Amit Pathak in a media statement revealed that Pahalwan pleading innocent lied in the first police investigation and blamed the victim for narrating a false incident.
Pathak informed, “Pahalwan admitted that he planned the entire event with his local associate. He also suggested the victim to mention ‘unknown assailants in the FIR to take political advantage of the incident later.”
“The initial complaint was written by him (Pahalwan) at his residence,” added Pathak.
It is notable here that in the initial complaint filed by the victim, there were claims that he was abducted and assaulted by unknown assailants. A muted video of the assault was made viral by several social media influencers, including Alt News’ Md Zubair.
Upon police investigation, it was clear that the victim was assaulted by persons known to him, the ‘customers’ who had purchased occult amulets from the old man Abdul Samad. The fake communal angle and the claims of being forced to chant ‘Jai Shri Ram’ were completely false and were added in the video that Umed later made, trying to give an intentional communal spin to the incident that was of personal animosity between two parties.
Umed Pahalwan’s history
With seven cases registered against him, Pahalwan was a thief in his hometown Pilkhuwa. He then became a follower of Aulaad Ali a municipal officer before joining the Samajwadi Party. Pahalwan has been married thrice.
Defaming Hindu religious slogan ‘Jai Shri Ram’
Earlier, on June 17, Uttar Pradesh Police had booked Umed Idris on June 17 for trying to portray the personal animosity between Abdul Samad and his alleged attackers as a ‘communal’ incident. The SP leader had falsely claimed that the victim of the assault was forced to chant “Jai Shri Ram” by “Hindu” attackers.
The Uttar Pradesh police said they have arrested nine persons in connection with the Ghaziabad assault case.