In what highlights the communal tension created owing to reports connecting Tablighi Jamaat members to the spread of COVID-19, a Muslim ex-army man was brutally thrashed by a group of Hindu men including a village sarpanch on the pretext that he was "spreading" COVID-19.
The victim, Samaiuddin, an SPO employed with the Nuh Police station, was on his way to the fields when a group of men 'guarding' their village put an iron chain around his neck, gagged and dragged him saying he and his people were responsible for spreading COVID-19. The victim was injured and was rushed to a private hospital in Gurugram.
His wife filed a complaint following which a case was registered against eight men—who are still absconding. The incident was reported from Sangel village in district Nuh.
"He is a former soldier and is currently serving country by working as special police officer in Nuh police station. He was going to our fields when he came across a barrier erected by locals using throned bushes and some space had been left for pedestrians and bikers," said the victim's wife Samia in her complaint to the police.
"The local sarpanch was there with his nephew and few other men when they started making communal slurs. He urged other people to attack saying he was roaming out to spread COVID-19. They got an iron chain, gagged him and pulled him around till he was unconscious. Somebody called my father-in-law and her went there but was not allowed past another barrier erected by villagers," she said.
"We had relatives nearby whom we called and they took my husband to Nuh hospital from where he was sent to Gurugram," she said in her complaint.
The police have registered an FIR and are looking for the accused.
