Patna: The torture of a 30-year-old Muslim man in Bihar’s Araria district triggered a political storm after Leader of the Opposition in the assembly Tejashwi Yadav shared a video of the incident.
Declaring it an instance of ‘Taliban rule’, Yadav in a post on X hit out at the ruling coalition led by Nitish Kumar’s Janata Dal (United) for its criticism of the state of law and order in Bihar when his party, the Rashtriya Janata Dal (RJD), was in power.
As can be seen in the video shared by Tejashwi Yadav, a group of persons stripped one Md Amanullah naked and stuffed red chilli powder into his rectum. The incident took place last Sunday in Araria’s Islam Nagar village.
Taking cognizance of videos of the incident circulating on social media, Araria Police had its technical cell verify the video Monday and filed a case against five men from Islam Nagar village—all of whom have been arrested.
Manish Kumar Rajak, station house officer (SHO) of Araria police station, told ThePrint that the accused tormented Amanullah after suspecting him of entering their locality with the intention to steal a motorcycle.
Rajak said Amanullah is a resident of Simraha police station limits and “has been accused of motorcycle lifting in the past also and has been in jail in this connection”. He also said that the group that tortured Amanullah later handed him over to the police but the latter was released since the police had received no written complaint against him at the time.
Rajak said the FIR against the accused was registered by police Tuesday, only after it was able to verify the viral video of the incident.
The FIR was registered under sections 109 and 117(4) of Bhartiya Nayaya Sanhita (BNS). The first corresponds to attempt to murder and the second to grievous hurt caused by a group of five or more persons.
On Wednesday, the Araria police headquarters issued a press release saying it had arrested all five named in the FIR. They have been identified as Md Shafat Niyani, Ravi Sahm, Md Kaif, Md Umar and Md Rajib. Three of the accused were arrested from Patna.
The Araria police also urged social media users not to share the video of the incident.
(Edited by Amrtansh Arora)
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