On Sunday, four Muslims were arrested at a college Garba celebration in Indore, Madhya Pradesh, after a huge group of rightwing activists allegedly barged in and went on the rampage, accusing the college of spreading “love jihad.”
The males were released on bond after the police declared they were “preventive arrests” following fights at Oxford College. After paying Rs 50,000 bail, a magistrate ordered Adnan Shah, Mohammad Umar, Abdul Qadir, and Syed Saqib’s release.
The Bajrang Dal, which is tied to the state’s ruling BJP, was the party who crashed the campus festivities. There was no action taken against them. The police have penalised the college for breaking Covid rules.
Despite showing their student IDs, the jailed guys and their families claim they were targeted because of their names.
Adnan Shah, 21, claims the Garba event’s organising committee requested him to help. When the Bajrang Dal members allegedly came in, he was assisting students in parking their automobiles at the cycle stand.
“I was on duty at the cycling stand when 100 to 150 individuals barged in and caused a commotion,” Adnan, a second-year B.Com student, explained.
He claimed that he was one of 25 student volunteers present, but that he had been singled out. “When I gave them my ID card, they told me it didn’t mean anything and asked why I was there,” he explained.
Members of the Bajrang Dal accused Muslim males of engaging in “love jihad,” a term used by the right-wing to accuse Muslim men of seducing Hindu women into partnerships in order to convert them.
According to a police complaint filed by a Bajrang Dal leader, Tarun Devda, the district administration had only allowed 800 people to attend the programme, but many more came up after the organisers converted it into a commercial event by selling tickets. He further accused the college of “encouraging Muslims” to participate in a Garba event held during the Navratra festival.
Aside from Adnan, the police detained another Muslim student and two other Muslim men who had purchased event tickets.
The arrests were justified by the police as a means of restoring tranquilly.
“5,000 people had gathered at the location when we arrived. To keep the peace, we filed a FIR against the college and arrested four young men “On the arrest, senior police officer Prashant Chaubey remarked.
The young guys were welcomed to the college for the occasion, then whisked away and accused of practising so-called “Love jihad,” according to relatives of one of the arrested men.
One of the relatives, Sajid Shah, asked, “Does the constitution of this country not allow Muslim children to attend functions in their college?”
Outside numerous campuses in another region of Madhya Pradesh earlier in the day, contentious posters demanding that “non-Hindus” be prohibited from Garba events were visible.
The posters were placed in public places in Ratlam by the Vishwa Hindu Parishad (VHP), a right-wing party. Because there was no formal complaint, the police took no action.
“The posters were first brought to my attention by the media. When we looked into it further, we discovered that these are private functions that they perform in their colonies and in a private manner. Because no one has raised an objection, it is not a punishable infraction “According to Gaurav Tiwari, a police officer.
“No, this cannot be regarded as fostering communal disharmony,” he answered when asked if posters like these propagated communal hatred.
Usha Thakur, a top BJP leader, advised Garba organisers not to admit non-Hindus and ordered them to screen participants using their voter cards in 2014. Ms. Thakur has now been appointed as the state’s Minister of Culture and Tourism.
(With inputs from NDTV News – Topstories.)
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