"In spite of so many Hindus around, you prefer a Muslim?" a cop snarls at a woman, in offensive language, in a video that has recently emerged from Uttar Pradesh’s Meerut.
In the video, four police personnel are seen harassing the woman, in their official vehicle. A female cop is seen hitting the woman and, on the instructions of the male cop, yanking the woman’s scarf forcefully off her face.
According to ANI, three police officers, including a woman constable, have been suspended after the video of them abusing and slapping a woman for being friends with a Muslim man went viral.
“Departmental inquiry is underway. Their act in the video is also being investigated. Further action will be taken following findings of investigation,” SP Meerut told ANI.
The video was reportedly shot after the police had "rescued" two medical students –one Muslim man and one Hindu woman – from an attack by members of the right-wing outfit Vishwa Hindu Parishad (VHP).
“We said there's nothing like that. Police reached later and put us in separate vehicles. They misbehaved with me. In police station, a woman asked me to file a rape complaint against him. My family and I refused,” the girl told ANI.
UP Police responded to a tweet about the incident, asking Meerut police to “look into the matter and take necessary action.”
What Had Happened?
According to NDTV, the man and the woman were studying together at the former’s house on Sunday, 23 September, when alleged VHP members reached there, assaulted them and accused them of “love jihad,” before handing them over to the cops.
On reaching the police station, the two were reportedly attacked again by the VHP members. However, the men allegedly part of the assault have not been arrested yet.
“We were sitting and studying when members of Bajrang Dal came, locked me up in a room and beat him (the man) up. They asked me for an ID and taunted us saying 'how will you get married? He's Muslim, you're Hindu',” the girl who was beaten up said.
Senior Superintendent of Police Ranvijay Singh told ANI, “The police was called because the people in the same area as the boy and girl could not accept them there, and were troubled by the fact that they belonged to different communities.”
Singh also said the police "had no business in doing what they did."
The duo have not given any written complaint yet, Singh told NDTV.
A Stark Contrast: Uttarakhand’s Gagandeep Singh
This incident comes months after Uttarakhand policeman Gagandeep Singh confronted an angry mob all by himself in an attempt to protect a Muslim boy from getting lynched.
The boy had allegedly been found with a Hindu girl in a temple, which had infuriated a mob in Uttarakhand's Ramnagar.
(With inputs from NDTV, ANI.)
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