Acche din: "Killed by right-wing workers as he had beard and wore a skull cap"

An young IT professional was beaten up to death, allegedly by members of a fundamental Hindu group as he was returning residence Monday night after insulting pictures of Shivaji and Bal Thackeray uploaded on Facebook triggered communal tension across the Pune over the weekend, police said.

Police recognized the sufferer as Mohsin Sadiq Shaikh, a 24-year-old from Solapur district, who worked as an IT manager with a private company in Pune. The seven people, aged between 19 and 24 years, have been arrested. They were linked with the Hindu Rashtra Sena, a fundamental group active in the Maharashtra, police said.

The Crime Branch also called Hindu Rashtra Sena chief Dhananjay Desai for quizzical. He was later under arrest in association with an earlier case at Pune Cantonment police station, linking to sharing of offensive pamphlets in March this year.

Shaikh was supposedly beaten near his rented house in Bankar Colony, Hadapsar as he was returning with a friend Riyaz after offering namaz at a masjid, around 9 pm.

Riyaz suspected that Moshin was under attack because he was wearing a skull cap and had a beard. “I ran from the place and called his brother Mobin for aid. Though, by the time Mobin arrive, Mohsin was badly beaten up and the assailants were getting ready to depart,” he told

A police team reached the place quickly but the assailants ran away from the place, leaving their motorcycles and wooden  sticks. Police detained three motorcycles that helped in knowing the identity of  assailants. The arrests were made on Tuesday. Mohsin was taken to a private hospital where he was confirmed dead around 1 am.

Deputy Commissioner of Police (Zone IV) Manoj Patil has told that all seven accused are linked with the Hindu Rashtra Sena. Though, prior to his arrest, Hindu Rashtra Sena chief Desai told that his group has no involvement in the assassination. “We understand that circulating derogatory pictures is a cyber crime but the problem cannot be solved by killing innocent persons. We did condemn the uploading of derogatory pictures, but we did not plan attacks on innocent persons. We have branches across the state and there is no incident of attack carried out by our activists till now,” Desai said.

The insulting photographs, posted on Facebook and spread through WhatsApp on Saturday, triggered communal tension in the town as workers of Hindu groups and political organisations indulged in violence and combustible. Over 200 public transport buses and private vehicles were smashed and incidents of combustible, stone-pelting and rioting were reported from several parts of the town.

To control the condition, police called area and peace committee meetings. After one such meeting in Hadapsar area on Monday evening, a “rumor” of Muslims pelting a Shivaji statue with stones triggered the tension.