Vadodara communal hatred case: Three held for viral video promoting enmity

The accused individuals have been identified as Mustaqim Imtiyaz Shaikh, Burhanbaba Nanumiya Saiyyed, and Sahil Shaikh

August 29, 2023

‘Moral policing on communal lines’: 3 held in Vadodara for ‘promoting enmity’

Three men were arrested on charges of promoting enmity and attempting to destroy evidence in the Vadodara communal hatred case.

The accused individuals have been identified as Mustaqim Imtiyaz Shaikh, Burhanbaba Nanumiya Saiyyed, and Sahil Shaikh.

Officials stated that one of the accused Sahil Shaikh was the administrator of a WhatsApp group named ‘Army of Mahdi‘. The group was involved in moral policing on communal lines.

The arrests were carried out following the posting of a video on social media platforms that allegedly incited communal hatred.

According to police, the accused individuals were reportedly involved in an incident of moral policing in June on communal lines. They allegedly engaged in the intimidation and verbal abuse of a man who was accused of having a friendship with a girl from their community.

This video, which gained widespread attention, was subsequently deleted by the individuals as police investigations began to close in on them. The arrests were executed on August 28, and the inquiry into the incident is currently underway.

They had uploaded a video of an incident where they had abused and assaulted a man in Akota in June because he had been found in the company of a girl from their community.

There was no case in the incident but they posted the video of the incident, where the man was intimidating in the presence of the female friend. The video had gone viral. “We had begun a probe and narrowed in on them, which prompted them to delete the clip, and the group,” the police said.

A suo motu investigation was initiated into the viral video from June. It was discovered through sources that the implicated video had been uploaded by the group administered by one of the accused. They deleted the video and the group and created a new one a couple of days ago, but it had no activity.

[With Inputs from IANS]

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