With the arrest of 10 more persons in connection with the attack on a man in Maharashtra’s Ahmednagar district for allegedly supporting Bharatiya Janata Party’s Nupur Sharma on social media, the police have held all 14 accused in the case, an official said on Sunday.
The incident of attack had occurred on August 4 in Karjat town of Ahmednagar district. The 23-year-old victim, Pratik alias Sunny Rajendra Pawar, was attacked with sharp weapons by at least 14 people from the Muslim community with a sword, sickle, sticks, and hockey sticks, police said. Pawar was later admitted to the Intensive Care Unit (ICU) of a hospital for injuries to his head and other parts of the body, they said. The police had earlier arrested four accused in the case.
“After the first information report (FIR), the Ahmednagar police had launched a search operation to nab the accused. On Saturday, four accused in the case were arrested,” the official said. Continuing the searches in Karjat area, officials of the probe team nabbed 10 more accused later, he said adding, “All 14 accused in the case have been held now.”
The incident of attack had occurred when Pawar and Amit Mane, the complainant in the case, were going to attend an event on his two-wheeler and waiting for a friend near the medical shop at at Akkabai Chowk in Karjat. While they were waiting for a friend, some men belonging to the Muslim community approached them on two-wheelers. They were carrying a sword, sickle, and hockey sticks, the FIR said. One of them shouted at Pawar saying he had written a post on social media in support of Nupur Sharma and also put the status on Instagram after Kanhaiya Lal, and attacked him, Mane stated in his complaint filed on Friday.
According to the complaint, the attackers targeted Pawar for his alleged social media post for supporting Nupur Sharma and status of Kanhaiya Lal on Instagram, the police official said. Kanhaiya Lal was allegedly murdered by two Muslim men in June in Udaipur for allegedly sharing a social media post in support of former BJP spokesperson Nupur Sharma, whose comments on Prophet Mohammad had caused a huge row. Pawar sustained serious injuries in the attack in his head and other body parts and was undergoing treatment at a private hospital. The attackers threatened Pawar that he will meet the same fate as that Umesh Kolhe. One of the attackers hit Pawar in his eyes, the official said quoting the FIR.
Kolhe, a chemist, was killed over his alleged support for Nupur Sharma on social media in Maharashtra’s Amravati district. After Pawar was left injured, Mane called up his two friends and they rushed Pawar to a state-run hospital, police said. The FIR was registered against 14 people under sections 307 (attempt to murder),143 (being a member of an unlawful assembly), 147 (rioting), 323 (voluntarily causing hurt), and 504 (intentional insult with intent to provoke breach of the peace) and others of the Indian Penal Code (IPC) and the Scheduled Caste and Scheduled Tribe (Prevention of Atrocities) Act, police said. “Police are examining Pawar’s social media accounts and also recovered his mobile phone for further investigation in the case,” the official said.
The mobile phone will be sent to the forensic science lab to verify whether he had uploaded any post from the gadget, he added.
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