Mohammed Arif Qureshi, a resident of Biscuit Gali

AHMEDABAD: A 48-year-old Muslim man, an autorickshaw driver from the Karanj area of the city, was on Tuesday threatened by an unknown man who asked him “How can a Muslim drive and earn money in Ghatlodia (area of the city)”.

Mohammed Arif Qureshi, a resident of Biscuit Gali near Pankornaka in Karanj, said he got a passenger from Gheekanta who wanted to go to Chanakyapuri . “After I dropped the passenger off near Chandlodia railway station, I was moving about in Ghatlodia to find a passenger. At around 2pm, a passenger waved at me to stop the rickshaw. I stopped my autorickshaw and asked him where he wanted to go. The passenger said he wanted to go to Delhi Darwaja and I told him to get in,” said Qureshi in his FIR.

“Suddenly, a man rushed there and asked me on how can I, being a Muslim, roam in Ghatlodia and take passengers from here. To this, I told him that I had stopped as the passenger had waved at me to stop. He then got angry at me and abused me. Before I could realise anything, he came up with an iron rod and tried to attack me. I evaded the attack and drove off but my autorickshaw meter was damaged in the attack,” Qureshi said.

Qureshi then approached a city-based advocate, Imtiyaz Pathan, who took him to the office of police commissioner A K Singh. At the commissioner’s office, a control room cop sent Pathan and Qureshi to Sola High Court police station, where an FIR was registered under IPC Section 294(b) (verbal abuses) and 427 (mischief causing damage to the amount of fifty rupees). Police, however, did not invoke IPC Section 153-A, for promoting enmity between groups on grounds of religion and race, and acts prejudicial to the maintenance of harmony.

