3 held for assaulting a man in Kanpur over forced conversion

Kanpur: Kanpur police arrested three people for allegedly hitting and threatening a Muslim man and for forcing him to chant ‘Jai Shri Ram’ over allegations that he was attempting to convert a Hindu woman to Islam. On Wednesday, the incident occurred in Barra area in Kanpur’s Kacchi Basti locality. The incident was made public after a video of it went viral on social media. The video shows the man’s little daughter crying and clinging to him as a mob assaults him. Despite her pleas, the mob refuses to spare her father.

PTI reports that one of the arrested accused is a member of the Vishva Hindu Parishad.

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Asim Arun, the Kanpur police commissioner, said that three people were arrested on Thursday night. Aman Gupta, one of those arrested, is affiliated with the Vishva Hindu Parishad (VHP), police said. Apart from Aman Gupta, the two other arrested suspects are Rajesh, alias Jay, and Rahul. The accused are all between 25 and 30 years old, and are residents of the Barra area.

Based on a complaint filed by the victim, the police registered a case. ‘Once the viral video came to our notice, we took cognisance and registered an FIR,’ DCP (Kanpur South) Raveena Tyagi said, adding that several teams were formed to identify and arrest the perpetrators.

A probe is underway to identify and arrest other accused in the case.

In the meantime, a woman has claimed that the man who was beaten up tried to convert her to Islam. Her claim is that she even reported the incident to the police, to which no action was taken. Following this, she went to meet the Bajrang Dal’s district organiser, Dilip Singh.

Talking to UP Tak, Dilip Singh affirmed that the Bajrang Dal did take ‘action’ on its own. ‘Two days ago, we filed a complaint of religious conversion with the police but they did not take any action on it. Since the police did not take any action, today, we took an action,’ Dilip Singh said.