GREATER NOIDA: Around 60 residents of a Greater Noida village flocked to the medical shop of a pharmacist and allegedly heckled him after he wrote a post on Facebook that was construed as “anti-national” in nature.The post, put up on February 7, was removed later. He was arrested on Monday morning following a complaint by a villager of Ghodi Becheda and later released. Police have also booked the mob that flocked to his shop for rioting. Sources said the same pharmacist had been targeted in 2015 and 2016 for putting up controversial posts on the Kumbh Mela and the caste system.Around 8am on Monday, a group of villagers gathered near the medical store of the accused and allegedly heckled him over the controversial post of February 7. Police were informed by a few neighbours when the argument snowballed into a clash.“We received information about the mob around 8.30am by a local villager who dialed 100. A police team was immediately sent to the spot and the man was rescued and brought to the police station. As of now, both parties are trading allegations against each other and the matter seems suspicious. So, we have booked all of them under sections 147 (rioting), 149 (unlawful assembly guilty of offence), 323 (voluntarily causing hurt), 307 (attempt to murder), 153A (promoting disharmony on grounds of religion), 504 (intentional insult with intent to provoke breach of peace), 506 (criminal intimidation) along with Section 7 of the Criminal Law Amendment Act of the IPC,” said Avneesh Kumar, circle officer (Dadri).“We are questioning both parties as it seems that the incident is part of a conspiracy aimed at disturbing peace in the area,” Kumar added.The man accused of uploading the controversial post is a pharmacist who manages his own medical store and lives with his parents, wife and two kids in the village.Pankaj Rawal, who lodged a complaint against the pharmacist, said the people had no motive of attacking him and had gone to his shop to request him to remove the Facebook post. “He refused to do it and instead, challenged us to take legal action against him,” said Rawal.The man’s family accused the mob of malafide intentions. “My brother was employed at one of the protesters’ medical store and left the job last year to run his own shop, I suspect he was attacked over enmity,” his brother said.

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