Eight more Muslim men have been arrested for the attack against Maharashtra youth Prateek Pawar, for his social media post supporting Nupur Sharma. Earlier, 6 others were arrested. Amongst those arrested, there is also a minor boy who has been arrested by the Karjat police.
Karjat police have asserted that those arrested would be produced in court on Monday. All of them are residents of Karjat, Ahmadnagar. It was on Saturday that the police arrested 5 men and detained 1 juvenile in connection with the attack on Prateek Pawar, taking the total arrested tally to 14.
The complaint against the attackers was filed by Amit Mane. Mane was with Pawar when the Islamists had attacked him brutally with swords. Reportedly, Mane said that while attacking him, the Islamists kept referring to a social media post where Prateek had extended his support to ex-BJP spokesperson Nupur Sharma.
According to the complaint by Prateek Pawar and his friend Amit Mane, the groups of Islamists attacked 23-year-old Prateek Pawar on August 4. Mane said that on August 4 Pawar was going towards Karjat in Ahmednagar and had stopped on the road near Akkabai chowk waiting for a friend. But suddenly around 12 to 14 people arrived in a white Swift car, and three two-wheelers – a black Bullet, a red Pulsar and a white scooter – and surrounded him. They told Pawar, ‘You have so much proud in Hindutva’. They further told him, ‘You are regularly posting posts and statuses on social media supporting Nupur Sharma and Kanhaiya Lal, due to which more people have started to support them, we think we should do a Umesh Kolhe with you also’. They were referring to the murder of Umesh Kolhe in Maharashtra for supporting Nupur Sharma.
After that, one Islamist named Shahrukh Pathan assaulted Prateek Pawar with a sword with the intention to kill him while chanting loud slogans. Pawar tried to protect himself and in the process, the sword hit his hand. After this, Nihal Khan Pathan and Sohail Khan Pathan attacked Sunny on the head from behind. The gravely injured Hindu youth fell to the ground and started bleeding, but the Islamist group continued to hit him with swords, sticks, hockey sticks etc saying that they will not let a Kafir remain alive. After a blow on the head with a sword, Prateek fainted and the attackers fled from the scene.
The victim was immediately rushed to a hospital, and police launched a probe into the case. The accused have been booked under sections 307, 143, 147, 148, 149, 323, and 504 of the IPC on the basis of the complaint filed by Amit Mane. Several persons including Sharukh Khan Pathan, Sohel Pathan, Nihal Khan Pathan, Ilail Sheikh, Tipu Pathan, Arbaz Kasam Pathan, Arshan Pathan, and Aqeeb Syed have been named in the case.