The social media platform Twitter has been named as an accused in a first information report (FIR) in Ghaziabad in Uttar Pradesh. The FIR has been filed against Twitter and eight others for ‘fake news’ on the attack on a 70-year-old Muslim man in Ghaziabad. In a video that went viral on social media, an elderly Muslim man had accused four men of beating him up, chopping his beard and asking him to chant ‘Jai Shri Ram’ in Loni area of Ghaziabad. However, the Ghaziabad police have ruled out a communal angle in the incident, and said that the man did not allege in his statment that he was asked to chant the slogan.
In view of the same, the Ghaziabad police have filed an FIR against the social media platform Twitter, members of opposition parties and journalists for spreading 'fake news'. The FIR names Alt News’s Mohammed Zubair, journalist Rana Ayyub, the news media website The Wire, Congress leaders Salman Nizami, Maskoor Usmani and Shama Mohamed, author Saba Naqvi as well as Twitter Inc and Twitter Communications India PVT.
The FIR in the case states that despite the Ghaziabad police ruling out any communal angle in the incident, those named as accused did not delete their tweets. The police have said that Twitter did not take any action against the “inciteful” tweets that were spreading “misinformation” on the social media platform.
In the video that went viral on social media, Abdul Samad, the old man in the video, is heard alleging, "They eventually drove me to a secluded house in a field in Behta Hazipur village of Loni where they further beat me up while asking me to chant Jai Shri Ram. Every time I cried in pain and uttered Allah they beat me up again asking me to chant Jai Shri Ram instead."
"They even chopped my beard, calling me a Pakistani spy," he had added.
After videos of the assault started doing the rounds, Ghaziabad police issued a statement on Twitter that it had already registered an FIR and arrested one man, Parvesh Gurjar, for his involvement in this alleged incident which took place on June 5 but was reported to police two days later. Ghaziabad Senior Superintendent of Police Amit Pathak, however, said victim Abdul Samad, a Bulandshahr resident, had not made any allegation of being forced to chant Jai Shri Ram or the chopping up of his beard, in his FIR lodged on June 7 with a delay of two days.
Ghaziabad (Rural) SP Iraj Raja said the motive behind the beating up of Samad by Gurjar and his associates was a dispute between the two over the purchase of an amulet. Samad also practised occultism and had sold some amulet to Gurjar, purportedly to free one of his family members from some "evil effect" but a dispute arose between the two as there was no desired result of the amulet, Raja said. After Gurjar's arrest, the police repeatedly summoned Samad to join the investigation, but he never came to the police, the SSP said, adding he was also summoned for Monday, but he is yet to appear.
I've deleted the videos that I had posted. The victim's version of him being forced to chant "Jai Shri Ram" at this point in time do not seem to add up based on my conversations with police authorities and other journalists reporting on this issue. https://t.co/cof5bjv3I4
— Mohammed Zubair (@zoo_bear) June 15, 2021
With PTI inputs