Uttar Pradesh police on Tuesday ruled out any communal angle in the violent incident reported in Ghaziabad, where six men allegedly thrashed and chopped off the beard of an elderly Muslim man. The victim claimed that he was targeted because of his religion. The police, however, said that the assaulters and the victim knew each other and they were unhappy over the amulets the old man had sold them.

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“There is no communal angle in the incident. The victim and his assaulters knew each other since a long time. The man sold him a tabeez (amulet) to prime accused, who complained that it had an adverse effect on his family,” reported India Today quoting Superintendent of Police (SP), Ghaziabad (rural).

According to PTI, the UP Police have filed FIRs against Twitter, several journalists and Congress leaders for “provoking communal sentiments”. 

The FIR filed in Ghaziabad’s Loni names journalists Rana Ayyub, Saba Naqvi and Mohammed Zubair. Online news platform The Wire, and Congress leaders Salman Nizami, Shama Mohamed and Maskoor Usmani have also been named. 

A video of the alleged incident, which took place on June 5 in Ghaziabad’s Loni, has surfaced on social media the other day, in which the elderly man can be seen being beaten by the accused.

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The victim claims he was travelling in an autorickshaw when he was abducted by two men, who were sitting in front of him. He said he was taken to a “jungle area” and was beaten up. “They told me to chant ‘Jai Shri Ram’ repeatedly. They hit my back and kept insisting that I should say ‘Jai Shri Ram’,” he alleged in the video.