UP man beaten for wearing skull cap

Meerut (UP), Sep 28 (IANS) A young man was allegedly thrashed by a group of people here for wearing a skull cap in a college campus where he had gone to deposit his sister's fee.

A video of the incident is now being widely circulated on social media.

In the video, the man can be seen taking off the cap after the miscreants tried to overpower him by grabbing his collar while another one picks up a brick.

According to police, the incident took place on Monday when Mohd Sahil, a resident of Lisari Gate locality, was standing in a queue at the fee counter.

Mohd Imran, Sahil's brother who filed a police complaint, said, "Sahil was accompanied by our sister who is pursuing B.Sc at the college. Some youths began passing communal slurs. They objected to his skull cap and demanded it to be removed. Then they started slapping him. It was only after our sister screamed for help that they fled."

Notably, the FIR does not mention the reason for the assault and the accused have been booked as "unknown" under IPC sections 323 (voluntarily causing hurt), 504 (provocation with an intention to breach peace) and 506 (criminal intimidation).

"We had clearly mentioned in our complaint that Sahil was assaulted for wearing a skull cap. We are in talks with the police and requesting them to include stringent sections in the FIR," said Imran.

Police, however, said there was no "religious angle".

SP (city) Piyush Kumar said, "Preliminary investigations have revealed that the victim was looking at his mobile phone and the youths attacked him thinking that he was filming them. A probe is underway."