Kanpur police reject Owaisi’s charge, say man held for assault

Rejecting AIMIM president Asaduddin Owaisi’s allegation that a police officer harassed one Mohammed Rafiq, the Kanpur Dehat police on Friday said he was arrested for allegedly assaulting two police officers and robbing one of them of his service pistol.

In a video of a purported speech made by Owaisi in Kanpur on December 12, he said, “At Kanpur Dehat Rasoolabad Police Station, an 80-year-old elderly person called Mohd Rafiq had his beard pulled and was urinated upon. The person who did this was an SI, Gajendra Pal Singh. Is this your izzat (decency)? You treat an 80-year-old like this? If this is true, it’s not a shame but we feel pained… I want to tell those policemen that remember my words, Yogi will not be CM forever, Modi will not be PM forever… We Muslims might be silent now due to the exigencies of the times, but remember that we are never going to forget your atrocities…”

A farmer from Bheek Deo village, Rafiq was arrested on December 7 for allegedly attacking sub-inspector Gajendra Pal Singh and head constable Samar Singh in March when they had gone to intervene in a domestic violence registered against him by his daughter-in-law.

“We arrested Rafiq (67) on December 7 and recovered sub-inspector Gajendra Pal’s service pistol from his possession. Rafiq is lodged in jail,” said Pramod Shukla, Station House Officer of Rasoolabad, adding that Rafiq was facing seven cases.