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BAREILLY: Around 25 right-wing activists including a self-proclaimed cow vigilante, allegedly barged into a private birthday celebration of a 20-year-old first-year female nursing student at a cafe in Bareilly and thrashed some of her male guests, raised ‘love jihad' slogans and created a ruckus after objecting to the presence of two Muslim students at the party.According to the victims, police initially fined the two students and a cafe staff member for "breach of peace" while no immediate action was taken against those who disrupted the event and assaulted the guests.

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Cops took note of the "assault and harassment by the right-wing activists" after a social media outrage.

Bareilly SP (city) Manush Pareek said, "We've identified those seen attacking inside the cafe, and an FIR has been registered under BNS sections 333 (house trespass), 115-2 (voluntarily causing hurt), 352 (intentional insult...),

351 (criminal intimidation) and 191 (rioting). We've sought a reply from the SHO on why no action was not taken against them." A departmental inquiry has been initiated against the SHO, police said, adding that "claims of love jihad were found to be untrue".The incident took place on Saturday evening when the student, a resident of Budaun and staying in a local hostel, hosted a small gathering with nine people, including five women.

The nursing student said the allegations of ‘love jihad' were baseless. "They gate-crashed and assaulted my friends. One of them suffered fractures," she added. A video showing some men thrashing guests at the birthday party was also widely shared online.Meanwhile, Ashish Sharma, ‘gau raksha pramukh' of a right-wing group's Bareilly unit, said Thakur was no longer part of their organisation. He also alleged that members of his group "were not part of the assault".