FIR filed against Tamil Nadu youth allegedly attacked for uploading on social media picture of himself consuming beef

A police FIR has been registered against Mohammed Faizan, a man  who was attacked last week for allegedly uploading a picture of himself consuming beef soup at a village in Nagapattinam district in Tamil Nadu on social media. Four people have been arrested since in connection with the attack. [caption id=“attachment_3763385” align=“alignleft” width=“380”]  Representational image. CNN-News18[/caption] On the orders of district Superintendent of Police TK Rajasekaran, the police had registered case and arrested the four people: Dinesh Kumar (28), Agathian (29), Ganeshkumar (27) and Mohankumar (28) on 12 July The police registered cases under various IPC sections, including an attempt to murder, against them and police sources say that the four arrested do not belong to the Hindu fringe group, Hindu Makkal Katchi (HMK). Poravachery resident Mohammed Faizan, who is currently undergoing treatment in a hospital, had posted the picture of a beef soup describing its taste on Facebook. This post went viral which led to about 20 people barging in Faizan’s house to question him. The group then allegedly thrashed and attacked Faizan with a knife, but he was saved by his neighbours who promptly came to his rescue and saved him from the mob. According to reports, Faizan was supporting his friend on Facebook by uploading that photo. Mohamed Yunus, VCK treasurer in Kilvelur, had shared a post on Facebook on consuming beef, which has since been deleted. Last week a complaint was lodged against him in Kilvelur Police Station. Parthiban, a member of HMK,  filed a complaint against Faizan and two others claiming that an argument had broken out between Parthiban’s wife and Yunus. He then alleged that Yunus had threatened his family and had uploaded a Facebook post to take “revenge”. To retaliate, Faizan posted a picture of him consuming beef soup to support Yunus’ post, which went viral. Police then went on to arrest Yunus on Monday following a complaint by HMK, is a right-wing Hindu nationalist party in the Indian state of Tamil Nadu. Registering the complaint, the police booked Faizan and two others under sections 153(A) (promoting enmity), 294(B) (obscene acts causing annoyance to others), and 504 (intentional insult with intent to provoke breach of the peace) of the Indian Penal Code (IPC). Since Faizan is currently getting treated in the government hospital at Nagapattinam, the police are yet to arrest him. However, Faizan’s family alleged that members of HMK, were behind the attack. The CPM state unit condemned the incident and called for stringent action against the accused. In protest against the incident , many people took to Twitter and voiced their outrage using hashtags like #Beef4life, #WeLoveBeef, #BeefForlife and so on. Using these hashtags, they argued in favour of the freedom to eat whatever one wants and against the persecution of religious minorities and some Dalit groups who eat beef. Many bought beef delicacies and posted pictures of them on social media platforms. With inputs from agencies