When 22-year-old nursing student Shivangi threw a birthday party at a cafe in Bareilly’s Rajendra Nagar on December 27 for her college friends, little did she know that all hell would break loose on them.
Shivangi and around 12 or 13 of her batchmates from Keshlata Institute of Nursing were having a good time at Den Cafe and Restaurant in the afternoon when a group of 25 to 30 men — later identified as members of the Bajrang Dal’s Bareilly chapter — reportedly entered the venue and began asking who were Hindus and who were Muslims among the students. “Muslim kaun hai?” they asked. They segregated the two groups and asked the Hindu students to step outside.
Two Muslim students were made to wait inside the cafe and were subjected to slurs, with the men accusing them of indulging in ‘Love Jihad’. Videos from the incident showed the students being slapped and pushed aggressively before the violence escalated into a full blown assault involving kicks and blows. Some of the attackers had their faces covered.
Shivangi was not spared either. She was allegedly stopped from making phone calls, pushed to the ground, and verbally abused. The men also reportedly claimed that they were not afraid of the police and that nobody could touch them. A team from the Prem Nagar police station eventually arrived at the scene.
At the police station, Shivangi recorded her video statement. The police then summoned Shailendra Gangwar, the owner of Den Cafe and detained him along with the two Muslim men on charges of rioting. All three were granted bail later that evening.
On December 28, the Prem Nagar police registered an FIR based on a complaint filed by the cafe owner. Shivangi’s complaint, however, did not result in an FIR. The cafe owner’s complaint named Rishabh Thakur and Deepak Pathak, along with 20 to 25 unidentified individuals.
According to last available reports, five persons have been arrested in the case, but Thakur and Pathak remain absconding.
This story was originally published in altnews.in. Read the full story here.
