All accused granted bail within a day : Valley Vision

Akash Ahwad, Nilesh Ahire, and Jayesh Mohite, three youths who were arrested for allegedly assaulting an elderly Muslim man on a train after accusing him of carrying beef, were released on bail within a day.

Police statements show that they were charged only under bailable sections of the new Bharatiya Nyaya Sanhita (BNS) laws.

The accused, , all in their 20s and en route Mumbai for a police exam, were booked under sections 189(2) of the Bharatiya Nyaya Sanhita (BNS) for unlawful assembly, 191(2) for rioting, 126(2) for wrongful restraint, 190 for wantonly doing anything illegal and knowing that provocation could cause a riot, 115(2) for voluntarily causing hurt, 352 for breach of peace, 324(4) for mischief causing damage or loss of between Rs 20,000 and Rs 1 lakh, and 351(3) for criminal intimidation by threatening to cause death or grievous hurt. All sections are magistrate-triable.

The video shows that the man, identified as Ashraf Ali Sayyed Hussain alias Haji Ashraf Munyar, was attacked based on his Muslim identity and verbally abused, but the police ignored this aspect of the incident entirely.

Hussain, a resident of Jalgaon district, was travelling to his daughter’s house in Kalyan when he was beaten up by his co-passengers near Igatpuri on 30 August.

The men punched the elderly Muslim man in the face, chest, and stomach, hurled anti-Muslim abuses, snatched his phone, and recorded the assault on mobile phone before posting it on social media.

Hussain was carrying buffalo meat and the consumption of water buffalo meat is legal in Maharashtra.

He also said to The Wire that the men threatened to kill him and rape the women of his family if he complained to the police.

Once the videos of assault were out, activists belonging to the Social Democratic Party of India (SDPI) encouraged Hussain to take legal recourse. Hussain, accompanied by his family and a team of SDPI workers, went to Thane police station. The police registered an FIR.