Meerut cops name 18 for attack on students

MEERUT: The Uttar Pradesh police have registered a case against the assailants of two Meerut Medical College students, who were manhandled on Sunday, police superintendent (city) Ranvijay Singh said. It was registered at Medical Police Station on sub-inspector Pramod Kumar’s complaint.

As many as 18 people have been named in the case and charged with hurting religious sentiments. The assailants had barged into the house of one of the students, a Muslim, and thrashed, abused and attacked him for being with his Hindu female classmate.

There is no mention of the names of the Hindu outfits the assailants belong to in the FIR, police officers familiar with the developments said. A few assailants had identified themselves as members of the Vishva Hindu Parishad and other Hindu outfits.

Ranvijay Singh said the case has been registered and investigations were underway to identify which organisations the attackers are associated with.

The female student separately claimed that the police pressurised her to implicate her classmate in a fake rape case for her release from the police station. She had gone to take her laptop from her Muslim classmate on Sunday when the assailants barged into the house and manhandled them. They accused the boy of being involved in the so-called ‘love jihad’, a controversial term Hindu groups have coined to describe what they claim is a Muslim conspiracy to lure Hindus into marriage. The attackers then brought the two to the police station.

Another purported video of the incident surfaced on Wednesday in which a group of men are seen thrashing the Muslim boy in the presence of police.

Senior police superintendent Akhilesh Kumar has ordered an inquiry against the police officers accused of using foul language against the female student while taking her to the police station.

A purported video of the incident that went viral on Tuesday shows a woman constable slapping her and removing the cloth wrapped around her face.

Kumar had suspended three cops and a home guard after the video went but no case has been registered against them. “Adequate action will be initiated against the errant cops after receiving the inquiry report,” said Singh.