A case has been registered under POCSO Act by Indore Police against 25-year-old bangle seller Tasleem Ali, for inappropriately touching and harassing a 13-year-old girl. Ali has been also booked for possessing fake documents related to his identity. Ever since the video of Ali being thrashed by a group of men in Govind Nagar Area went viral, the social media platforms and its infamous ‘intolerance gang’ came out of its burrow holes and tried to project it as a case of mob lynching, and the majority trying to force itself on the minority.
To begin with, it wasn’t a case of mob lynching or a haphazard communal episode. Those trying to spin the incident into such a narrative are bigger threats to India’s secular fabric than the extremists of any particular religion. Hindus don’t go around beating random sellers for their religious beliefs.
As the police reports suggest, Ali has been accused of eve-teasing a minor girl. Media reports have quoted the victim girl as saying that Ali came to their house around 2 pm Sunday, when her father was away, and identified himself as ‘Golu’, showing a half-burnt Aadhaar card.
“We began purchasing bangles from him. As my mother went to fetch money, the bangle-seller looked at me in an indecent way and grabbed my hand, saying ‘I’ll help you wear bangles’. He also inappropriately touched my cheeks.” the minor victim girl said.
According to the Police, while one of the Aadhar cards had the name of “Asleem, son of Morsingh,” the second one carried his identity as “Tasleem, son of Mohar Ali”. As a result, Ali was booked on Monday evening under IPC Sections 354 (assault or criminal force on a woman), 354-A (sexual harassment), 467, 468, 471 (forgery), 420 (cheating) and 506 (criminal intimidation), along with POCSO.
Meanwhile, Madhya Pradesh Home Minister Narottam Mishra pointed the reason for the escalation of the conflict as Ali tried to hide his Muslim identity.
“As per the report of the Home Department, the man was selling bangles using a Hindu name while he was from some other religion. There were two Aadhaar cards on him.” Mishra said before adding, “There is a ritual of women wearing bangles during saawan… the issue between two sides started from there.”
Imran Pratapgarhi, National Chairman of, Congress Minority Department, took to Twitter to share the video and tried his best to make it a Hindu-Muslim issue and even drew parallels with Afghanistan.
He tweeted without talking about the eve-teasing incident, “This video is not from Afghanistan but from Indore today. A Muslim bangle seller is being looted and trashed in the land of dreams of CM Shivraj Chouhan. Narendra Modi, sir, did you want this India? When will action be taken against these terrorists?”
https://twitter.com/ShayarImran/status/1429488328429080579?
Pratapgarhi throwing the word ‘terrorist’ around loosely should gauge his words carefully, for the terrorists in India’s neighbourhood have taken over an entire country and forced thousands of natives to flee the land as refugees. Does Pratapgarhi believe that few men trying to protect the modesty of their minor girl is an act of terrorism?
There is no religious angle, plain and simple. Ali inappropriately touched a minor, forged his identity and when caught, did not come out clean. The angry citizens, like any other conflict, in the heat of the moment, resorted to violence by giving him a few blows.
Even then, the police have booked the three main accused seen in the video and one would observe no Hindu citizen crying foul over their booking. They resorted to violence, even if little and thus should be tried according to the law.
As for the reaction from the other religious community, the Police was forced to register a case against three members of the Muslim Nuamainda Committee that stormed the police station on charges of wrongful restraint, rioting, use of obscene words and criminal intimidation.
None of the Hindus or supposed ‘Hindu terror outfits’ tried interfering with the work of the Police or state machinery but a handful of Muslim men resorted to such unruly behaviour. The difference is clear and the liberal cabal that had been shouting hoarse over the video has gone into hiding after the reality of Ali and his misconduct with a minor girl came to light.