Muslim man ‘beaten up’ for not chanting Jai Shri Ram in West Bengal, one arrested

“I had gone to Kushmor village to sell spices on Sunday when a man accosted me and asked me to chant ‘Jai Shri Ram’. I told him that every person has the right to follow his religion, and therefore I did not chant the slogan. When I refused to chant, he started beating me up. Later, I left the spot. He thrashed me again when I was returning home,” Sheikh, a resident of Bhadista area of Birbhum district, told The Indian Express.

He said that he had never faced such hostility earlier. “This is the first time, I was harassed and beaten up like this. I want nothing but justice,” he added.

Acting on the complaint, police have arrested Gautam Mondal. “We have arrested one person in connection with the incident,” said a police officer of Paikar Police Station.

Last month, a 26-year-old madrasa teacher in South 24 Parganas district had alleged that he was beaten up by a group of people on a train after he refused to chant ‘Jai Shri Ram’.