Nearly a week after videos went viral that appeared to show Bajrang Dal members beating up four Muslim youths at a Garba venue on SindhuBhavan Road, city police arrested five members of the right-wing group for the attacks.
Sarkhej police said that the events in question happened on the night of September 27. They said that “eight to ten youths wearing saffron scarves” went after and beat up youth from a minority community. They also beat up a youth named Salman Shaikh, who was badly bleeding. Inspector V J Chavda of the Sarkhej police said that the videos that went viral helped them figure out who was behind the crime.
The police statement also said that the suspects recorded videos of their crimes and shared them online. The suspects were Hiren Rabari, 28, Nilesh Prajapati, 26, Jitendra Koli, 25, Sahil Dudhakia, 25, and Tarun Mistry, 25.
Sarkhej police had filed a FIR on September 29, against unknown men under IPC Sections 323 (causing hurt), 143 (member of unlawful assembly), 147 (rioting), 294b (uttering abusive words), and 153-A (promoting hatred between different groups based on religion, race, place of birth, residence, language, etc., and doing things that make it harder to keep the peace.
Police did commendable job of booking the mischief makers belonging to Bajrag Dal who often take the law in their hands. Police went on the state that the suspects are not charged with more serious crimes yet as theyb are still looking for the victim, Salman Shaikh. “If he comes to us with a complaint, we’ll add more serious charges to the FIR ” Chavda said. He added that they have looked for him in the hospitals around.
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