Kashmiri youth forced to wear women's clothes and assaulted by mob in Rajasthan's Alwar; investigation underway

After the video of a Kashmiri youth being attacked by a mob in Neemrana in Alwar district of Rajasthan went viral on Thursday, state and Central agencies interrogated the student, who was allegedly tied to a pillar after being forcibly made to dress in women’s clothes. The youth, identified as Mir Faiz, is originally from Baramullah in Jammu and Kashmir and is currently in his final year of engineering at the School of Aeronautics in Neemrana, The Wire reported. After Faiz registered a FIR for the assault,the  Alwar Police started an investigation into the matter and was on the lookout for the accused. But when Faiz was unable to explain why he was dressed as a woman, the case was transferred to the intelligence agencies.

However, the police couldn’t find anything suspicious after searching Faiz’s room. The investigating agencies have seized his mobile and laptop. [caption id=“attachment_7295711” align=“alignleft” width=“380”] Video screengrab of the incident showing the Kashmiri youth, Mir Faiz, who was assaulted by a mob on Wednesday in Alwar, Rajasthan.[/caption] Neemrana Station House Officer Ajay Singh was quoted by Scroll as saying, “He is being interrogated by the Intelligence Bureau team currently. The matter is being investigated.” The student’s elder brother, Faisal, who works at Tata Consultancy Services in Delhi headed to Neemrana after hearing about the incident, which occurred on Wednesday night. Faisal said his brother had gone to the Neemrana market to buy some things, where he was abducted by three men who had forced him to get onto a bike. The Quint quoted Faisal as saying, “They took him to an isolated place where he was forced to wear a woman’s clothes. They then instructed him to walk around the market in those clothes. They threatened to kill him if he did not. He tried to walk into an ATM and change his clothes but panicked, when he came out he was caught by a crowd, tied to a pillar and repeatedly slapped.” On the basis of the student’s complaint, the police have filed an FIR on Wednesday night under sections 143 (unlawful assembly), 323 (voluntary causing hurt), 341 (wrongful restraint), 342 (wrongful confinement), 505 (public mischief) and 506 (criminal intimidation) of the Indian Penal Code. However, the police said that an FIR into the matter was registered late on Wednesday night itself. “The boy had complained that about 20 unknown men had beaten him in the market. An FIR is being registered under sections 143 (unlawful assembly), 323 (voluntary causing hurt), 341 (wrongful restraint), 342 (wrongful confinement), 505 (public mischief) and 506 (criminal intimidation) of the Indian Penal Code,” Laxman Singh, sub inspector at the Neemrana police station told The Wire. Although there was initial speculation regarding the allegations of child-lifting, Laxman Singh, sub inspector at the Neemrana police negated any such possibility. Singh was quoted by The Quint as saying, “This has nothing to do with the ongoing rumours of child-lifting in the area. The case needs to be investigated further. The boy is claiming he does not know who the three were, who forcibly made him wear women’s clothing. After keeping him in the jail for a few hours, we have let him go with his brother who lives in Gurgaon. The police’s search for those three is on.”