india

Updated: Apr 18, 2017 17:37 IST

Police arrested on Wednesday two people who claimed to belong to the Hindu Yuva Vahini for an overnight assault on a couple in Meerut. They allegedly misbehaved with the woman and beat up her fiance.

The incident occurred a day after a Muslim couple in the city’s Shastri Nagar locality was dragged out of a house by members of the Hindu Yuva Vahini , a group founded by Yogi Adityanath before he became the chief minister of Uttar Pradesh. They thrashed the man and handed them over to the police. Later, the police filed obscenity charges against him.

On Wednesday, the couple was on their way to the woman’s house on a scooter when they were intercepted by six men claiming to be cadres of the Yuva Vahini, said Medical police station in-charge Dharmendra Kumar.

The men misbehaved with the woman and beat up her fiance when he objected. They also attacked the man’s brother when he came to rescue the couple. The men, said Kumar, then took the brothers to the police station and told the SHO that they were troubling the woman.

The police arrested the brothers but let them go after the woman reached the police station and narrated the incident.

“The man works in a private bank. He went to drop off his fiance last night when half a dozen people stopped them near PVS Mall and misbehaved with the woman,” said Kumar. “They claimed that they were part of the Hindu Yuva Vahini and were doing so under the anti-romeo campaign.”

The incident comes days after Uttar Pradesh chief minister Yogi Adityanath instructed police not to harass “innocent” couples. He had asked senior officials to chalk out clear guidelines for anti-Romeo squads to ensure that police did not act against boys and girls hanging out together with consent.

“The anti- Romeo squads have been formed to take action against anti- social elements. People who harass girls are not youth but ruffians ,” he said. The CM said there will be no moral policing.

The attackers have been booked on charges of voyeurism, voluntarily causing hurt and criminal intimidation.