By Zafar Aafaq
The Uttar Pradesh Police on Saturday booked journalist Zakir Ali Tyagi and four others for alleging on social media that a Muslim man had been lynched by a mob in the state’s Shamli district.
The others are Wasim Akram Tyagi, Asif Rana, Saif Allahbadi and Ahmad Raza Khan.
The five persons were booked for promoting enmity between different groups under section 196 of Bharatiya Nyaya Sanhita, and making statements conducive to public mischief under section 353.
On Friday, Zakir Ali Tyagi claimed in a social media post that a man Firoz, or Kala Qureshi, had died in a mob lynching incident in the Jalalabad town of Shamli district. He also named the persons who had allegedly beaten up Qureshi.
He had shared a photo of the complaint filed by Qureshi’s family, who claimed that he had been beaten up by a group of men that had caused his death. Qureshi’s family said that he had gone to the Aryanagar area for some work where he was beaten up. Qureshi was rescued by some men and he died at home at 11 pm, the family said.
The police had on Friday filed a separate first information report in connection with Qureshi’s death based on the family’s complaint, invoking charges of culpable homicide not amounting to murder against unknown persons under section 105 of Bharatiya Nyaya Sanhita.
On Sunday, Shamli Superintendent of Police Abhishek confirmed to Scroll that a first information report had been registered against Zakir Ali Tyagi and the four others at the Thana Bhawan police station.
This story was originally published in scroll.in. Read the full story here.
