New Delhi: Owner of Jain Bakeries in Chennai’s T Nagar was arrested for publicizing that it employs no Muslims to prepare food items.
In a WhatsApp advertisement, Jain Bakeries and Confectioneries pointed out that all their orders are “made by Jains” and “no Muslim staff” were engaged for the purpose.
After the post went viral on social media platforms, police arrested Prasanth, the owner of the bakery, and booked him under various sections of the IPC.
The shop owner can be prosecuted Sections 153 (provocation to cause riot), 153A, 505 (inciting commission of offence against another community) and 295A (insult a class of people) IPC.
Communal rumours, false allegations
Earlier today, a report claimed that bulk of the COVID-19-related fact-checks in April was related to communal rumours with most of them being false allegations against Muslims of purposefully spreading the virus.
“During April, a new trend was observed communally charged disinformation targeting Muslims became more frequent,” the report said.
It further says that Islamophobic rumours around them purposefully spreading the virus were doing rounds on the social media.
Recently, Congress Treasurer Ahmed Patel questioned the “silence” of the National Human Rights Commission over targeting of the Muslim community by certain sections of the society and the media.
Patel was apparently referring to the harassment of the Muslim vendors through various means and said that it’s “contrary” to the WHO guidelines.
Tablighi Jamaat and stigmatization of a community
After the Nizamuddin Markaz fiasco, the Tablighi Jamaat has been blamed by many for the spread of the virus due to which the entire community has been stigmatized by the people.
Even two BJP MLAs in Uttar Pradesh allegedly told people not to buy vegetables from the Muslim vendors, and in Madhya Pradesh, a poster was put out in a village that Muslim traders were not allowed to enter the area. While the MP government lodged an FIR, the BJP unit in Uttar Pradesh also issued a notice to the MLA.
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