Mamata announces compensation to men pushed off train for not chanting ‘Jai Shree Ram’

KOLKATA: Condemning the incident where three Muslim men were allegedly pushed off a moving train in West Bengal for refusing to chant ‘Jai Shree Ram’, Chief Minister Mamata Banerjee on Tuesday announced a compensation of Rs 50,000 each to the injured, including a Madrassa teacher and two others, for the treatment.

Speaking to ANI, Mamata said that she has personally spoken to the victims who were allegedly thrown out of the train.

Mannah Mullah, one of the victims, was traveling with six people from Canning in South 24 Parganas district in West Bengal to Hooghly on Tuesday when a group of men entered their compartment and allegedly forced them to chant ‘Jai Shree Ram’.

Earlier, Mullah told ANI that he wanted to chant the slogan he was asked to, but couldn’t as the mob was continuously thrashing him.

“Seven of us were attacked by a group of people, although I tried to chant ‘Jai Shree Ram’ I could not because they kept beating me up. Then they pushed me off the train with two more people,” he mentioned.

Madrasa teacher, Hafeez Mohammed Shahrukh Halder, has alleged that he was beaten and thrown out from a train for refusing to chant ‘Jai Shri Ram’.

“I was on a train to Sealdah on June 20, when some people traveling in my compartment pressurized me to chant ‘Jai Shri Ram’. I refused to do so following which they beat me up badly and threw me out at the Park Circus railway station,” Halder told reporters here.

A similar incident came to the fore last week, where a Muslim man, Mohammad Momin, was allegedly attacked by three people in New Delhi’s Rohini area after he refused to chant ‘Jai Shree Ram’.

ANI inputs