Kolkata: In an incident that took place in Hooghly’s Chinsurah on Wednesday morning, miscreants allegedly slapped Muezzin after he refused to chant ‘Jai Shri Ram’ slogan.
According to a report published in Telegraph, the Muezzin, Mohammed Sufiuddin (54) who is a resident of Chakbazar in Chinsurah alleged that three youths on a motorcycle stopped him when he was heading towards the mosque on his bicycle at 3:45 am and asked him to chant, ‘Jai Shri Ram’ slogan. “When I refused to raise the slogan, one of the three youths slapped me”, he alleged.
He further claimed that when he tried to raise alarm, they managed to escape as there was no one around.
Later, Sufiuddin approached the police station to lodge a complaint against the miscreants. After lodging the complaint, he claimed that after BJP won 18 seats in West Bengal in the 2019 Lok Sabha elections, cases of harassment increased.
He said that it is not the first incident. “Earlier too after the victory of BJP in the Lok Sabha elections, a youth had said, ‘Kaka, Jai Shri Ram bolo’ (Uncle, chant Jai Shri Ram).”
Condemning the incident, BJP president in Hooghly Gautam Chatterjee claimed that his party never forces anyone to raise the ‘Jai Shri Ram’ slogan and urged police to take action against miscreants.
Targeting BJP over the incident, TMC leader and state agriculture marketing minister Tapan Dasgupta said that it is the saffron party’s attempt to damage harmony.