LUCKNOW: Chief Minister
Yogi Adityanath retorted to a tweet by former Congress chief Rahul Gandhi about the alleged attack on an elderly Muslim man in Ghaziabad, saying the opposition was peddling a lie despite the clarification issued by the police.
“Prabhu Shri Ram ki pehli seekh hai satya bolna jo aapne kabhi jeevan mein kiya nahi (The first teaching of Lord Ram was that one should always speak the truth, which you have never done in life),” Yogi tweeted.
Union minister Hardeep Singh Puri also joined the UP CM in attacking the Congress leader, starting his tweet with ‘karara jawab’ (befitting reply). “Rahul Gandhi should take note that ‘truth’ is in the garbage bin of Rajasthan where vaccines were dumped. ‘Truth’ is in the fake account in the bank of Punjab where the proceeds of vaccine black marketing were deposited. It is in Digvijay’s statement on (Article) 370. Untruth is the only truth of Congress,” Puri tweeted. The exchange between Rahul and Yogi came in the backdrop of a video which went viral on social media, in which an elderly Muslim man, Abdul Samad, accused four men of beating him up, chopping his beard and asking him to chant ‘Jai Shri Ram’ in Loni area of Ghaziabad. “I am not ready to accept that such an act could be committed by Ram Bhakts,” Rahul tweeted.
Meanwhile, the Ghaziabad police said investigations revealed that Samad had come to the Loni border from Bulandshahr from where he went to the house of the main accused, Parvesh Gurjar, in Loni, with another person.
“After some time, a few youths reached Parvesh’s house and assaulted Samad. They said Samad used to make tabeez to ward off evil but the tabeez Samad gave to them had an adverse impact. They said Samad had given tabeez to many people in the village," the statement said. Police said an FIR was lodged and Parvesh Gurjar and two others, Kallu and Adil, had been arrested and efforts were on to nab the remaining culprits.
Gurjar was reportedly arrested a few days after the incident for his role in another case but his involvement was also found in the case of assault.
Senior superintendent of police, Ghaziabad, Amit Pathak said Samad did not make any mention of being forced to chant “Jai Shri Ram” or chopping off his beard, in the FIR which was lodged on June 7.
He expressed surprise over Samad’s fresh allegations on June 14 and said someone might have instigated him. Pathak said after Gurjar’s arrest, police repeatedly summoned Samad to join the investigation, but he did not turn up.
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