A reporter from SCROLL.IN Mayank Jain had to face a tough time, and this time also the issue was of beef. This is what has happened with him while he was performing his professional work…
“It was Sunday, I was in Patel Chowk near Metro Station Delhi, I saw group of Cops on high alert in every stop of the road”.
“They were checking bags of the people, once I thought they are looking for bomb but when I came to know they were inspecting the beef from their lunchboxes. I saw students from Delhi posted a notice on Facebook annoucing protests outside the Bharatiya Janata Party headquarters over the killing of 50-year-old Muslim man in Dadri, only because of the rumor as he and his family is eating and storing beef in his refrigerator”.
The Delhi police had been stationed at all the metro stations in the area to detain anyone headed to the event.
Jain further narrated, “I was expecting to see some protests and slogans, but unfortunately i was stopped outside the metro station since a officer refused to believe that my press card was genuine. After his misbehave I later came to know from Delhi police website, that he was Dinesh Kumar, the Station House officer at the Parliament Street Police Station.”
Later, Jain strolled towards the BJP office where he met two people who were asking for directions to the BJP headquarters. “One of them told me that his name was Gaurav Jain and it turned out that he was the organiser of the protest. He said that they had escaped security check at the metro station by hiding the beef deep inside their bags. Evidently, the police search hadn’t been as thorough as it should have been”.
“As we were chatting, an SUV stopped in front of us. A group of policemen grabbed us and asked us to step into the car. We were being taken to the Parliament Street Police Station.
Protesters started phoning Gaurav Jain to ask why he had not arrived at the venue.
“Soon enough, we found ourselves in his office at the police station where they made us write down all our details, surrounded by a scrum of constables and inspectors. There was even a senior officer from the CID who said he was investigating the case, but didn’t bother to ask or verify my credentials.”
Pertinently, my surname Jain was enough to enrage the SHO. “Today’s kids are throwing Hinduism into a gutter,” he said. “Is this what your parents teach you? That you go out and eat beef?”
My protestations were met with a command to “shut up” and threats of slaps and “dhaaras” (sections of the law).