The Uttar Pradesh Police has filed a chargesheet in the Loni assault case, India Today has reported. 11 people have been chargesheeted in the matter. The chargsheet does not include Samajwadi Party leader Umaid Phelwan against whom a separate chargesheet will be filed. He has been booked under the National Security Act.
According to the report, the accused have been booked under sections 323 (voluntarily causing hurt), 504 (insult to cause breach of peace), 506 (intimidation), 295(A) (deliberate act to intend outrage religious feelings), 147 (rioting), 148 (rioting with deadly weapon), 149 (unlawful assembly) of the Indian Penal Code. The accused include Parvez Gujjar and Kallu Gujjar.
It is the same case where motivated propagandists had claimed that the victim was thrashed after forcing him to chant ‘Jai Shri Ram’. It later turned out to be fake news spread on the basis of manipulated media.
In reality, Parvez Gujjar rued that his wife was 6 months pregnant and after he took the amulet from the Muslim occultist, his unborn baby died. He added that since he had taken the occultist’s tabeez, things went awry. This enraged him, therefore he thrashed Abdul Samad Saifi.
UP Police booked Twitter and others over fake news
On June 15, an FIR was registered by Ghaziabad Police against seven people, including Alt News cofounder Mohammed Zubair, Rana Ayyub and others. Twitter Inc and Twitter Communications India were also listed as accused in the case for their inaction to remove the misleading content from their platform.
Notably, Twitter has recently lost its intermediary status in India for not complying with the new Information Technology Rules, which came into force on May 26. The FIR was registered for circulating a muted video allegedly to spread hate among communities.
On June 17, it was reported that Local Samajwadi Party leader, Umed Pahalwan Idris, who appeared in a Facebook Live video alongside Ghaziabad assault victim Abdul Samad, was booked by Ghaziabad police. Police have accused Idrisi of giving the incident of personal animosity a “communal colour”.