LoP in Lok Sabha and Congress leader Rahul Gandhi during a march that culminated the ‘Vote Adhikar Yatra’ in Patna. Photo: AICC via PTI
Two months after a video of Mohammed Rizvi alias Raja using abusive language against Prime Minister Narendra Modi went viral, leading to his arrest, his father Mohammed Anish is dealing with the fallout.
“I don’t want to say much, but the police beat my son so that he looked dead. What was his crime? Just that he comes from a poor family,” says Mr Anish, sitting in his small two-wheeler repair shop in Bharwara, a village in north Bihar’s Darbhanga district. Ever since word of his son spread, customers dried up.
The shop is just 8 km from Bithauli Mor on National Highway-27, where local Congressman Mohammed Naushad had set up a stage on August 27 to welcome party leader Rahul Gandhi during his Voter Adhikar Yatra held to condemn the special intensive revision of electoral rolls in Bihar. After Mr Gandhi, Rashtriya Janata Dal leader Tejashwi Yadav and other leaders left the venue, Mr Rizvi was reportedly caught on camera making derogatory remarks at the Prime Minister from the podium. After the video went viral and sparked widespread outrage, the Darbhanga BJP district president filed a police complaint and a first information report was registered against Mr. Naushad and others at the Simri police station on August 28. Late at night, Mr. Rizvi was arrested at his home by police from Simri and Singhwara stations.
“When I visited the Simri police station the next day to know why my son was arrested, I found him badly beaten and pleading his innocence. The police refused to say anything. I took it as a poor man’s lot and returned. Neither I nor his mother have seen him since then, but other family members have visited him in Darbhanga jail as he is very weak,” says Mr.
Dressed in a white waistcoat and blue lungi with a black amulet tied tightly around his neck, he becomes agitated as he recounts his son’s ordeal. “He is innocent and someone had to talk him into it, but those behind it will have to face the same kind of problem I am facing now,” he says, adding that he has not been given a copy of the FIR, nor has he been able to hire a lawyer to get his son released from jail. All he could do for his son was to rub some scented oil into his hair to “keep away the constant headaches and weakness.”
Asked how and when his son would be released if the case did not go to court, he immediately replied, “Do you think I have the money to hire a lawyer? He will be released jab uperwalla chahenge (God willing).”
“I don’t want to talk about the issues concerning my innocent son anymore. I have sworn for it in the name of Allah,” he says, adding that he has had enough of talking to mediators. “No one came to my aid, but it made me angry and exhausted, so I promised not to talk about it to anyone again. If I do talk, Allah will never forgive me… breaking a promise is considered a serious offense in our religion,” he explains.
While Mr Anish is in his fifties, his wife Chand Bibi is a “heart patient”. Mr. Rizvi is the third of his eight children. He found occasional work as a car driver and helped his father financially. Now Mr. Anish’s only source of income is a small thatched roof repair shop with a tin door. “I have a liver problem and also have to take care of other family members in this small shop that I have changed three times in the last five years. I have been running the shop in this place for the last 10 months only and I have to pay ₹15,000 a month as rent, which I have not been able to pay for a long time,” he says, sitting on a wooden bench. “Sometimes I sleep on it because my regular customers stopped coming to my shop after the incident, leaving me and my family to survive from hand to mouth. These days, I’m really scared to go home with just a few rupees in my pocket and some days with an empty pocket,” he says, his eyes moist.
“I was a workaholic, I was never an alcoholic. You can ask anyone around me and my children. I am the only Muslim in this area and everyone here knows me well… Bus apne kaam se matlab rekhte hain (I just do my work),” he says.
“I’m a poor man and I’ve left everything to uperwall (God),” he says with a look of helplessness on his face.
Published – 27 Oct 2025 23:14 IST
