A Muslim man was allegedly dragged out of a hotel and assaulted for being with a Hindu woman in Barmer district’s Balotra area on Thursday, reports The Indian Express.
“The Muslim man and the Hindu Rajput woman had checked into a hotel in Balotra, but soon after, the woman’s relatives arrived at the hotel and assaulted the man,” Barmer’s Additional Superintendent of Police (ADSP) Kailashdan Ratnoo said.
Mansarover Hotel owner Multan Parihar said, “Padu Khan, about 25, had checked into our hotel along with a middle-aged woman around 10 am. The woman was wearing a traditional Rajasthani attire. About half-an-hour later, the woman’s relatives somehow came to know that she was here and five persons reached the hotel.”
Parihar said that the men told him they would ‘address’ the issue among themselves. “I then went out, but soon afterwards, my staff informed me about a mob. Men from Shiv Sena had gathered outside and dragged Khan out of the hotel,” Parihar said.
“They were chanting ‘Jai Sri Ram’ and brutally assaulting him. Had police delayed anymore, he could have been lynched,” he said. “While assaulting him, the mob said that it was a case of love-jihad,” Parihar said.
ADSP Ratnoo said Khan was taken to a Barmer hospital for primary treatment and then referred to Jodhpur.
