News Brief
Screenshots from the video showing the attempted lynching of the woman
A disturbing case of attempted lynching has come to light from Rajasthan’s Jaipur city. A woman belonging to the Muslim community was attacked by a mob of her co-religionists, mostly men, over some slogans she painted on the walls of her house.
Scared, the woman, identified as Tahira Bano, tried to lock herself inside her house, but the mob dragged her out. They pinned her to the ground and beat her up. Thankfully, she was reportedly saved after a policewoman intervened and shielded her.
A video of the incident went viral on the internet yesterday.
The incident took place ten days ago.
Dainik Bhaskar quoted police constable Dholi Bai, who reportedly saved the victim, as saying that the woman is a resident of Kalyan Nagar. When the Malpura police received information that a crowd of 100-150 people were trying to attack a lone woman, they reached the spot.
Police told the media that the woman is mentally unstable.
A case was registered at the Malpura Gate police station of Jaipur City (old) on July 20 by the woman's husband Sahadat Ali.
Swarajya accessed the FIR. The statement recorded in the FIR says that around 11 30 am on 20 July, a mob of about 200-300 people gathered at his house and started raising slogans that said, "Take her out of the house, we will kill her".
The mob broke into the house after breaking the lock, and dragged her out. They beat her up and tore her clothes. The attackers included Nasir, Rashid, Arif, Irfan, Ikram, Deshwali, Ejaz, Kalam and Shanu, among others.
Police have arrested seven out of the nine men identified in the FIR, as per Organiser.
Navbharat Times reported that the slogan was in favour of the BJP, accompanied by the lotus symbol of the party. The report says that the woman is a vocal BJP supporter and would praise the party in her interactions with neighbours. For this reason, her neighbours harboured a grudge against her.
It's not the first such incident where a person from the Muslim community has had to face the ire of co-religionists for being vocal supporter of the BJP.
In Uttar Pradesh's Aligarh district, a woman named Gulistana accused her landlord, who was from her religion, of forcing her to vacate her rented house for joining the BJP.
A man named Shakeel Ahmad from Kanpur city of UP accused his neighbours of beating him up for voting for the BJP in the same elections.
In one of the most disturbing cases of this nature, after a man named Babar Ali was murdered by a group from his religious community, his family said that the trigger was his celebration of BJP's victory in state elections. The incident took place last year in Kanpur city of UP.