PATNA/SITAMARHI: A 23-year-old Sitamarhi man hospitalised in Darbhanga last week with multiple stab wounds alleged Tuesday that he had been attacked for backing suspended BJP spokesperson Nupur Sharma, contradicting the police's contention that there was "no communal angle" to the incident.
Ankit Kumar Jha, from Tehra village in Sitamarhi district, told reporters that the assailants first demanded to know whether he supported Nupur in the row over her remarks on the Prophet. "When I replied in the affirmative, one of them stabbed me six times. Though I don't know the assailants, I can identify the one who drove a knife into me," he said from his bed at Darbhanga Medical College and Hospital.
The attack took place last Friday in a shop at Nanpur in Sitamarhi. SHO Rakesh Ranjan of Nanpur police station said two of the four suspects involved in the attack had been arrested, but denied the trigger for the stabbing was the victim's professed support for Nupur.
The arrested duo - Gulab Rabbani alias Gora and Mohd Nehal - and their friends were smoking inside the shop when Ankit complained about one of them blowing smoke into his face, leading to a quarrel, the police said.
Sitamarhi SP Har Kishore Rai said Ankit's brother, who reported the attack to the police, didn't mention any dispute over Nupur. "We will record Ankit's statement soon," he said.
Ankit's family alleged that an FIR was registered only after they dropped any reference to the ex-BJP spokesperson.
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