Cricketer-turned-politician Gautam Gambhir on Monday condemned the attack on a Muslim man in Haryana's Gurugram and demanded exemplary action against the culprits.
"We are a secular nation where Javed Akhtar writes 'o palan hare, nirgun aur nyare' and Rakeysh On Mehra gave us the song 'arziyaan' in Delhi 6," Gambhir said in a tweet.
His remarks came after a video went viral in which a Muslim man was purportedly seen in Gurugram being asked to remove his skull cap and to chant 'Jai Shri Ram.
After Gambhir's comments, there was some backlash from his followers over his comments, prompting the BJP East-Delhi MP to send out another tweet saying "My thoughts on secularism emanate from honourable PM Mr Modi’s mantra 'Sabka Saath, Sabka Vikas, Sabka Vishwas'".
The Muslim youth was allegedly accosted and beaten up by four unidentified assailants in Gurugram on Saturday night for wearing a traditional skullcap and not chanting religious slogans, police said.
In a police complaint, Mohamad Barker Alam, 25, who hails from Bihar and is a resident of Jakob Pura here, alleged that four youth intercepted him at the Sadar Bazar Lane and asked him to remove the traditional skull cap he was wearing.
"The accused threatened me and said that wearing the cap is not allowed in the area. They removed the cap and slapped me. They asked to chant 'Bharat Mata ki Jai'. Following their instructions, I did that. Then they also forced me to chant 'Jai Sri Ram' which I refused. After that the accused picked up a baton and mercilessly beat me on my legs and back," he said in his complaint.
Alam, who was coming from local mosque in Sadar Bazar area after offering 'namaz', shouted for help and a number of Muslims from there rushed there to help him. As the attackers saw them approaching, they fled the spot.
"We have received a complaint about the incident and subsequently registered an FIR under sections of 153 (wantonly giving provocation with intent to cause riot), 147 (rioting), 149 (member of unlawful assembly guilty of offence), 323 (voluntarily causing hurt) and 506 (criminal intimidation) of the IPC in the city police station concerned. We have also conducted a medical examination of victim," ACP, Gurugram City, Rajiv Kumar, said.
"We are scanning CCTV footage of the area to identify the accused. Effort are on to nab them," he added.
