Three Kashmiri youths staying in the Jharkhand capital and engaged in selling blankets were allegedly beaten up by a group of men on Saturday, the police said.
Prabhat Ranjan, deputy superintendent of police (Ranchi Sadar), said a case has been registered and investigation is on. “We have detained three persons who were named in the complaint and are questioning them. We are scanning the CCTV footage of the area and the videos provided by the complaints. As far as the allegation of religious chanting is concerned, that is yet to be established. We will proceed further as per findings,” said Ranjan.
The incident occurred near Kadru railway overbridge under Doranda police station limits, said police. In their complaint with Doranda police station, the three men, Riyaz Ahmed Wani (34), Sartaj Ahmed, and Tanveer Ahmed (in their 20s), have alleged they were attacked by a group of around 20-25 people without provocation and forced to chant Hindu religious slogans.
“I was hit on my head with a rod. I escaped injury due to my helmet that got badly damaged. We have submitted the broken helmet to the police. Our scooty was also damaged badly. It was clear we were targeted in a planned manner as the group was already present there. A similar incident had happened earlier this month with our boys who had filed a complaint with Doranda police station,” Wani said.
The three detained accused have been identified as Deepak Jha, Tarun Kumar, and Arvind Kumar. Ranjan said one person was arrested and sent to jail in the previous incident that happened on November 11.
“We are also taking corrective measures to ensure safety for these groups of traders. We have sought details of all such men staying here and areas they are practising their trade so that we devise some mechanism for their safety. Be it increasing security or patrolling, we will take corrective measures accordingly,” said Ranjan.
