Five men, including one from the Vishwa Hindu Parishad (VHP), have been booked for attacking a shopkeeper in Tiruppur, demanding money for installing a statue of Lord Krishna in the city.

According to the police, the VHP celebrates Krishna Jayanthi by installing an idol of Lord Krishna in Muthalipalayam area near SIDCO in Tiruppur every year. This year the festival falls on August 23 and the members of the VHP are in the process of raising funds to celebrate the festival.

The said incident happened around 2pm on Sunday. “The group (including the VHP member and his friends) had collected money from an electrical shop owned by Siva. When Siva donated Rs 300, the group demanded that he give Rs 1,000. As Siva refused to pay anything more than what he had given, the group attacked him and issued death threats,” a police officer told TNM.

Meanwhile, the CCTV footage of the group intimidating and hitting the shopkeeper is going viral on social media. In the visual, a group of men standing outside a shop can be seen arguing with a couple. Suddenly one of the men hits the shopkeeper and continues their argument with the woman. The woman is seen desperately trying to restrain the man (presumably her husband) and tried to drag him away from the men. The couple is then seen engaged in a heated verbal duel with the men on the other side of the counter.

An FIR has been registered under sections 147 (Punishment for rioting), 294B (sings, recites or utters any obscene song, ballad or words, in or near any public place), 323 (Punishment for voluntarily causing hurt) and 506(1) (Criminal Intimidation) of the IPC in Uthukuli police station following complaint from Siva. The accused have been identified as Vasanth (the VHP functionary), Vignesh, Nisaar Ali, Ranjith and Ayyasamy and are being investigated.