A group of young men in Uttar Pradesh heckled and forced Two South Korean students to leave Meerut’s Chaudhary Charan Singh (CCS) university on Saturday. A viral video on social media platforms shows how the mob heckled the two foreign women accusing them of allegedly being Christian missionaries and spreading conversion propaganda. One of the men can be heard saying "There is only one God 'Ram', others do not exist. These are Christian missionaries, who want to come here. This is wrong," in the video.
Meerut police have come out with an official statement on their Twitter page, denying the allegations of religious conversions. The police also said that they took control of the situation immediately and did not let the matter boil any further. “Some foreign girls had come to visit the university. Some youths deliberately asked them about their religion and made a video. Some people wrongly spread this video that they are propagating religion. This is totally wrong,” it said.
Two young female Korean students were on a visit t the university upon the suggestion of an Indian friend. A man, who seemed to be leading the mob in the 33-second video says, "Who is with you… what is the purpose of your visit… there is only one god ‘Ram’, others do not exist. These are Christian missionaries, who want to come here. This is wrong… Jai Shree Ram,” Indian Express reported. It was then that one of the two girls tried to intervene and stop the mob in Hindi.
Meanwhile, CCS University registrar Dhirendra Kumar told Indian Express that the varsity has not received any complaint in the matter. "If any student or union files a complaint in this regard, then we will respond to that. It is not yet known who are those students or outsiders. If the police ask us anything during the investigation, we will reply,” Kumar said reportedly.
Meerut CO (Civil lines) Arvind Kumar in his response to the Indian Express said that the police are in the process of identifying the accused on the basis of the viral video, media reports, etc. "An FIR will be registered against the accused by today. Relevant sections of the IPC for misbehavior, abuse, and hurting religious sentiments will be included,” Kumar stated.
The CO also said that the foreigners had reached Meerut on Friday and were exploring the city. “They have done an internship in Delhi. They said they have many Indian friends in their country’s university. That’s why they seem comfortable speaking a little bit of Hindi. One of their Indian friends had suggested they visit Meerut university,” said Kumar.
He also added that their police team was close to the university at the time of the incident and immediately got the matter under control. "We helped both Korean students and escorted them safely to their hotel. A Local Intelligent Officer (LIU) was deployed for them, he was monitoring the situation all the time. On Sunday, they had a flight to Delhi, from where they would return to their country on Monday.”
