Two booked in UP for listening to song ‘praising Pak’

THE ACCUSED, WHO ARE COUSINS, SAID THEY ARE MINORS. POLICE ARE YET TO VERIFY THEIR AGE

LUCKNOW: Two Muslim boys were booked for allegedly hampering national integration by listening to a song hailing Pakistan on a mobile phone, police said on Friday.

A first information report (FIR) was lodged against the accused belonging to Singhai Murawan village in the Bhuta area of Bareilly district after an altercation over the issue with a local resident named Ashish Patel, police said.

The complainant shot a video of the altercation he had with the accused over their listening to a song praising Pakistan.

HT could not independently verify the authenticity of the video.

The accused, who are cousins, run a grocery shop. They said they were 17 and 16 years old, respectively, but police were yet to verify their age.

The FIR was

registered against them on a complaint by a local office bearer of a right wing outfit, Fareedpur circle officer (CO) Sunil Kumar Rai said.

In his complaint, Himanshu

Patel of the Hindu Jagran Manch accused the duo of misbehaving with Ashish Patel, when he objected to their playing the song, Rai said.

The complainant handed over to police a purported 45-second video of the incident, which was widely shared on social media as well, the CO said.

“The duo were brought to the police station for questioning but were released after they claimed that they were minors. We will verify their age from their schools on Monday,” Rai said.

A relative of the accused said the duo were just listening to music and had no intention of hurting anyone’s sentiments.

The FIR against the two was registered under Sections 153-B (imputation, assertions prejudicial to national integration), 504 (insult) and 506 (criminal intimidation) of the Indian Penal Code, Bareilly additional superintendent of police (rural) Rajkumar Agarwal said.