A 16-year-old Muslim boy was beaten up by a mob after he was allegedly caught before boarding an express train at the Bandra railway terminus in Mumbai with a teenage Hindu girl, who they claimed was kidnapped by him, police said, reported The Indian Express.
A purported video of the incident which showed the mob beating the youth amid slogans of ‘Jai Shri Ram’ was widely shared on social media. The mob accused him of eloping with the minor Hindu girl and allegedly claimed that it was “love jihad”. The incident occurred on July 21, but came to light when the video went viral on Tuesday.
‘Love jihad’ is a term often used by right-wing activists to allege a ploy by Muslim men to lure Hindu women into religious conversion through marriage.
Railway police is set to register an FIR against the assaulters.
Both the boy and the girl are aged 17 and are residents of Ambarnath in neighbouring Thane district. Police said that they had run from their homes at Ambernath and had come to Mumbai.
The girl’s family members had earlier lodged a complaint about her kidnapping in Ambarnath. After coming to know that the boy and the girl are waiting at the Bandra railway terminus, around a dozen people reached the spot and started assaulting the boy amid chants of ‘Jai Shri Ram’, police said.
After assaulting the boy, the group members took him to Nirmal Nagar police station located in Bandra East.
The Ambernath police later took the youth into custody in a kidnapping case and sent the boy to a correction home after he claimed he was a minor.
An official said that after the video surfaced on social media on Tuesday, local police as well as the GRP swung into action and launched a probe.
An official of Nirmal Nagar police station told news agency PTI that since the incident of assault occurred on the railway station premises, the GRP was informed about it for a probe. “We have made a station diary entry in connection with the incident,” he said.
All India Majlis-e-Ittehadul Muslimeen (AIMIM) leader Waris Pathan posted the video on X, formerly Twitter, and said, “I have been informed that this incident happened around 21/22nd July. At Bandra railway station which comes under Nirmal nagar p stn. But video was viral on social media today Then what was police doing till date,why no investigation or complaint registered by police who was present there (sic).”