Loni assault case: Court sends SP worker to judicial custody

A court in Ghaziabad on Sunday remanded Ummaid Pehelwan Idrisi in judicial custody for two weeks following his arrest on charges of spreading communal strife after he shared a video related to an assault on an elderly Muslim man.

Idrisi, who is a local Samajwadi Party worker, was produced by Loni border police before Additional Chief Judicial Magistrate Shubham Verma this evening.

He was booked under IPC sections 153A (promoting enmity between groups on the ground of religion, class, etc), 295A (deliberate and malicious acts, intended to outrage religious feelings of any class by insulting its religion or religious belief), 504 (intentional insult with intent to provoke breach of the peace) and 505 (public mischief).

The police have now also booked him under IPC sections 467/468/469/471 related to forgery.

Defence lawyer Anees Chaudhary, in his arguments before the court, stated that the sections which have been added by police are not applicable, therefore judicial custody cannot be granted.

The court, however, sent him to judicial custody for 14 days.

"Tomorrow we will move to the session's court for bail as prima facie there is no such evidence against him to slap more sections of IPC," he later said.

However, Senior Superintendent of Police Amit Pathak told the media that Idrisis had "misguided" the police on Saturday after his arrest.

He claimed that he gave a statement on social media based on wrong information furnished to him by the victim, Abdul Samad.

The Ghaziabad Police had on Tuesday booked Twitter, news website The Wire, besides some journalists and Congress leaders over circulation of a video in which Samad claimed that he was thrashed and asked to chant 'Jai Shri Ram' on June 5.

The police maintained the incident had no communal angle and that the accused were unhappy over the 'tabeez' (amulets) sold to them by Samad.

After detailed interrogation, Idrisi named 10 persons who were allegedly involved in beating Samad and chopping his bear, Pathak said.

"He concocted the entirely false episode to take political advantage after disrupting communal harmony and peace. He confessed that he had doctored the facts in clippings and documents. A member of the civic body member has also been named by him. Police will initiate action against the errant persons," the SSP said

Idrisi was held yesterday near the Lok Nayak Jai Prakash hospital in Delhi by a team of Ghaziabad police.

Nine persons have been arrested so far in the case.

SSP Pathak said that no case has been registered against Samad and his son in Ghaziabad district.