'From 150 members to 12': Uttarakhand gym owner counts cost of becoming 'Mohammad Deepak'

NEW DELHI: A gym successful Uttarakhand's Kotdwara that erstwhile drew much than 150 members has seen its clientele shrink to hardly a twelve aft its proprietor became embroiled successful a contention aft helium confronted Bajrag Dal members past month.Deepak Kumar, 42, who runs the 'Hulk' gym said his concern has suffered since helium confronted Bajrang Dal activists protesting against a garment store named ‘Baba’ and identified himself arsenic 'Mohammad Deepak' during the altercation."Earlier, implicit 150 radical utilized to bid astatine my gym. Since this quality began, the fig has travel down to conscionable 12 oregon 15," Kumar told quality bureau PTI, adding that galore regulars were staying distant to debar being drawn into the tension.The quality began connected January 26 erstwhile Bajrang Dal activists staged a protestation extracurricular the ‘Baba’ covering store connected Patel Marg, demanding that its 70-year-old owner, Vakil Ahmed, alteration the shop’s name. Clashes broke retired betwixt the protesters, Ahmed, and Kumar, who is simply a person of Ahmed’s son, prompting constabulary intervention.On January 31, a larger radical of activists again gathered extracurricular the store and Kumar’s gym, blocked the roadworthy and raised slogans.

The concern was brought nether power by the police, who aboriginal registered 3 abstracted FIRs successful transportation with the incidents.Tensions flared again aft a video circulated by the Hindu Raksha Dal showed a antheral threatening to march to Kotdwara connected February 12 to “teach Deepak a lesson”.The section medication has stepped up information to forestall further escalation. Additional Superintendent of Police Chandra Mohan Singh said nary 1 would beryllium allowed to disturb bid successful the municipality and warned of strict enactment against those attempting to incite trouble.