Bhopal: A 32-year-old book vendor in Ujjain was Sunday beaten up by a group of women affiliated to the Vishva Hindu Parishad (VHP) who accused him of misbehaving with women customers.
The man — Virak Saleem, who works with the Ahmadiya Muslim community — was subsequently booked for alleged molestation on the complaint of a 23-year-old woman at the book fair where he’d put up a stall.
The women who attacked Saleem accused him of seeking the phone numbers of only female customers. Viral videos of the incident also show the women accusing him of “targeting” Hindu women.
However, Saleem told local media that he was only writing down phone numbers of customers who had asked for certain books that weren’t available with him at the time, to intimate them about their availability.
Ujjain Superintendent of Police (SP) Sachin Sharma said they had registered an FIR under Section 354 (outraging the modesty of a woman) of the IPC based on the 23-year-old woman’s complaint. Saleem was arrested but given bail while the matter is being investigated, he added.
“The case registered in the police station was that of misbehaving with a woman, based on the woman’s complaint,” he said. “As per the FIR, it has nothing to do with the man’s religion. A case was registered and necessary action was taken, the matter is under investigation,” Sharma told ThePrint.
What happened at book fair
Speaking to the media, Saleem said a man came to him Sunday and asked for their card. A group of women then came, of whom one specifically asked for a Hindi translation of the Quran, he added.
“I told them that it was not available and, for that purpose, they wrote down their phone numbers,” he said.
In her complaint, however, the 23-year-old said that when she went to Saleem’s stall at the fair and asked for some new books, he asked her name and then introduced himself as Virak Saleem of Gurdaspur in Punjab. The woman alleged that Saleem asked her to become friends with him, and that he would then give her several new books.
“When I asked him ‘why I should become friends with you’, he held my hand. As I screamed, he threatened to kill me if I informed anyone about it,” she said in her complaint, accessed by ThePrint. “During that time, Ritu Kapoor… came there.”
In a statement to the media, Kapoor — who identified herself as VHP district president — asked why Saleem “did not take down the numbers of our male friends who first went asking for some books”.
“But when a young woman went, he asked her to give her number,” she said. “Then I went seeking the translation of a book pretending to be a teacher, which is when he assured me that the book can be made available, ‘so you give your contact number’.”
(Edited by Sunanda Ranjan)
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