Teen girls forced to remove hijab, slapped for talking to 'Hindu man' in Uttar Pradesh

MEERUT: UP police arrested a 38-year-old man, identified as Mohd Mehtab, on Saturday for allegedly assaulting and forcing a 17-year-old girl, who was with her younger sister (16) and heading home, to remove her hijab to make a video after the accused claimed that she was speaking to a "Hindu man". Mehtab was purportedly among one of the dozen men who had surrounded the teen girls and started "harassing" them.

The incident took place at Deoband in Saharanpur district on Dec 11 and it came to light after a purported video of the episode began circulating on social media.

The 17-year-old later told police: "My sister and I visited our relative's place and were heading back home when a motorcycle-borne man stopped and asked for directions. I was explaining the route to him when two unidentified persons intercepted us and started creating a ruckus. They started gathering more people, claiming that we were speaking to a Hindu man. Soon, we were surrounded by over a dozen men. I was also slapped."

In a widely-shared video, the girls could be seen surrounded by a group of men.

The mob overpowered the victim and snatched her phone as she was trying to call her brother. One of them was seen with a "gift" in his hand, claiming that the girls had brought it to give to a "Hindu man". However, upon learning that the man was not a Hindu, they allowed the girls to leave. The girls thereafter approached the local police and filed a complaint.

Superintendent of police (rural) Sagar Jain told TOI: "We have registered an FIR under Bharatiya Nyaya Sanhita (BNS) sections 115-2 (voluntarily causing hurt), 352 (intentional insult), and section 67 of the Information Technology (IT) Act. We have arrested Mehtab and are trying to identify the remaining men using the video which is being circulated online."


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