The Rajasthan Police have arrested two people for allegedly assaulting a 52-year-old driver in Sikar district after he refused to say “Jai Shree Ram” and “Modi Zindabad”, The Indian Express reported on Saturday.

The victim, identified as Gapphar Ahmad Kacchawa, said the incident took place on Friday and the accused stole a wristwatch and Rs 700 from him. The police said the accused were arrested after Kacchawa filed a first information report. “One of the men asked me to chant the slogan ‘Modi Zindabad’ and I refused,” he said in his complaint. “Then he slapped me hard. I took my taxi and tried to flee towards Sikar. But they followed me on their car and stopped my vehicle near Jagmalpura. They forced me to descend from the vehicle and they badly beat me up...The men abused me and forced me to chant ‘Modi Zindabad’ and ‘Jai Shree Ram’.”

He added that the accused kicked and punched him, leaving him with broken teeth. “I sustained serious injuries on my left eye, cheek and head as they assaulted me with a stick,” Kacchawa said. “After beating me up, they said we will rest only after sending you to Pakistan.”

Kacchawa’s nephew Shahid told the newspaper that his uncle has been admitted to a government hospital in Sikar after sustaining multiple injuries. “Around 4 am on Friday, my uncle was returning after dropping off passengers to a nearby village when two men who were in a car stopped him and asked for tobacco,” Shahid said. “However, they declined to take the tobacco that my uncle offered and asked him to say ‘Modi Zindabad’.”

Station House Officer Pushpendra Singh said preliminary investigation suggests that the men –Shambhudayal Jat and Rajendra Jat – misbehaved and assaulted Kacchawa.

The police have registered an FIR under Sections 323 (voluntarily causing hurt), 341 (wrongful restraint), 295A (deliberate and malicious acts, intended to outrage reli­gious feelings of any class by insulting its religion or reli­gious beliefs), 504 (intentional insult with intent to provoke breach of the peace), 506 (criminal intimidation), 327 (voluntarily causing hurt to extort property, or to constrain to an illegal act), 382 (theft after preparation made for causing death, hurt or restraint in order to the committing of the theft) and 34 (acts done by several persons in furtherance of common intention) of the Indian Penal Code.