Hindu family religiously profiled and targeted; Sikh man brandishes sword, abuses Hindu deities and stone-pelts their home

Case ID : 30aa4d1 | Location : Aligarh, Uttar Pradesh, India | Date of Incident : Wed, 9 September, 2026

Case ID : 30aa4d1

Aligarh, Uttar Pradesh, India

9 September, 2026

Hindu family religiously profiled and targeted; Sikh man brandishes sword, abuses Hindu deities and stone-pelts their home

Attack not resulting in death

Attacked for Hindu identity

Hate speech against Hindus

Anti-Hindu slurs, mocking faith

Case Summary

In Singh Vihar Colony in Aligarh, Uttar Pradesh, a Hindu woman and her family were religiously profiled and targeted for intimidation and threats by a Sikh man. The Hindu family’s home was also attacked and stone-pelted by the accused, who brandished a sword and hurled derogatory remarks against Hindu gods and goddesses. A video of the accused subsequently circulated on social media, showing him brandishing a sword near the family’s house and making anti-Hindu remarks. In the video, he was heard mocking the Hindu woman for worshipping Lord Krishna. He said, “Karti rehti hai Hare Krishna-Hare Krishna, tujhko Krishna bachane aayega ab?” (You keep saying Hare Krishna-Hare Krishna; will Krishna come to save you now?). The incident took place on 10 September 2026 at around 11:30 am in Singh Vihar Colony, which falls under the jurisdiction of Quarsi Police Station in Aligarh. The Sikh man, carrying and waving a sword, entered the Hindu family’s house and threatened the women and children present inside. He also attempted to attack one of the women with the sword. Fearing for their safety, the women retreated into rooms and locked the doors from inside. One of the women in the house was nine months pregnant. The incident frightened her and caused her health to deteriorate, following which her family took her to hospital. During the confrontation, the Sikh man claimed that the residents had defecated at his doorway. The family denied the allegation and described it as false. The man’s father arrived at the spot and attempted to calm him down. However, the man pushed his father, causing him to fall. He then came out of the house, smashed flowerpots and began throwing bricks and stones at the Hindu family’s house and neighbouring properties. He continued brandishing the sword for some time, causing panic in the locality. The disturbance drew the attention of people in the area, and a crowd began gathering outside. As the number of people at the spot increased, the Sikh man left the area. Police subsequently reached the spot, counselled the man and took him into his house. Following the incident, the family contacted the police through Dial 112. Rajrani Devi, wife of Suresh Chandra, subsequently submitted a complaint at Quarsi Police Station, seeking action against the accused over the life-threatening attack, threats and disturbance in the locality. The family had previously approached the police regarding the accused's behaviour. Police had visited the locality twice, including the man’s house, but returned after speaking to him. Following the latest incident, the family sought strict action against the man and protection from the police. After the incident and the circulation of the video, police took cognisance of the matter. Circle Officer Sarvam Singh said that police were investigating the video and making efforts to identify and arrest the man. The incident left residents of Singh Vihar Colony fearful, while local people called for police action against the accused.

Why it is Hate Crime ?

The primary category selected in this case is: Attack not resulting in death. The subcategory selected is: Attacked for Hindu identity. In several cases, Hindus are attacked merely for their Hindu identity without any perceived provocation. A classic example of this category of religiously motivated hate crime is a murder in 2016. 7 ISIS terrorists were convicted for shooting a school principal in Kanpur because they got ‘triggered’ seeing the Kalava on his wrist and the tilak that he had put. In this, the Hindu victim had offered no provocation except for his Hindu religious identity. The motivation for the murder was purely religious, driven by religious supremacy. Such cases where Hindus are targeted merely for their religious identity would be documented as a hate crime under this category. The other primary category selected is: Hate speech against Hindus. The subcategory selected is: Anti-Hindu slurs, mocking faith. Anti-Hindu slurs and the deliberate mocking of the Hindu faith owing to religious animosity involve the usage of derogatory terms, stereotypes, or offensive references to religious practices, symbols, or figures. One of the common anti-Hindu slurs used against Hindus is “cow-worshipper” and “cow piss drinker”. The intention of using this term is to demean and mock Hindus as a group and their religious beliefs since Hindus consider the cow holy. Additionally, some symbols and the slurs attached to them have a historical context that exacerbates the insult, hate, stereotyping, dehumanisation and oppression against Hindus. Cow worship has been used for centuries to denigrate Hindus, insult their faith and oppress Hindus specifically as a religious group. There has been overwhelming documentation about how cow slaughter has been used to persecute Hindus with cow meat being thrown in temples and places of worship. There has also been overwhelming documentation where cow meat (beef) has been force-fed to Hindus to either forcefully convert them to Islam or denigrate their faith. Apart from cow worship, the Swastika – which holds deep religious significance for the Hindus – has also been misinterpreted and distorted to use as a slur against Hindus. Similarly, the worship of the Shivling has been used by supremacist ideologies and religions to denigrate Hindus owing to religious animosity. Such slurs and denigration stem out of inherent animosity and hate towards Hindus and their faith, therefore, it is categorised as hate speech targeted at Hindus specifically owing to their religious identity. This case is a clear example of a religiously driven hate crime, as a Hindu family was religiously profiled and targeted for threats and intimidation by a Sikh man. Their house was stone-pelted, the accused brandished a sword, and Hindu gods and goddesses were subjected to derogatory remarks during the attack. The violence was therefore accompanied by explicit hostility towards the religious identity of the victims and the faith they followed. The first major religious marker is the targeting of the victims as Hindus in the course of what was otherwise presented as a neighbourhood dispute. The issue of defecation at a doorway has no inherent religious character. It concerns an ordinary neighbourhood grievance and does not explain hostility towards Hinduism. The religious character emerged when the victims’ Hindu identity and beliefs became objects of contempt. This distinction is important in determining whether an incident constitutes a hate crime. A dispute over a personal or neighbourhood matter remains a conventional conflict when the hostility is confined to that matter. When the faith of one side is singled out and denigrated during the conflict, the hostility acquires a religious dimension. Here, Hindu faith and identity were not incidental to the abuse; Hindu religious beliefs and sacred deities were specifically brought into the confrontation and subjected to contempt. This demonstrates religious profiling because the victims were treated not merely as individuals involved in a dispute but as Hindus whose faith itself became a target of hostility. Religious animosity is established when a person’s religious identity becomes a basis for contempt, intimidation or attack. The fact that the violence was accompanied by attacks on Hindu religious beliefs therefore distinguishes this incident from a random act of neighbourhood violence and establishes a clear manifestation of Hinduphobia. The second major religious marker is the deliberate mockery of Lord Krishna and the woman’s devotion to him. “Hare Krishna” is a devotional invocation of Lord Krishna and an expression of bhakti, or devotion, within Hindu religious practice. Krishna occupies a central place in Hinduism and is revered as a divine manifestation, while devotion to him is an important spiritual path within multiple Hindu traditions. The statement questioning whether Krishna would come to protect the woman therefore carried a specifically religious meaning: it ridiculed her reliance upon a revered deity at the very moment she was seeking protection. The insult was directed simultaneously at the devotee, her devotional practice and the sacred Hindu deity to whom she directed that devotion. This is significant because the statement did not merely use Krishna's name as an arbitrary insult. It derived its contempt from the religious belief itself, the belief that Krishna is worthy of worship, devotion and trust. By turning that belief into a subject of ridicule, the perpetrator denigrated an essential element of the woman’s Hindu religious expression. Such contempt towards a Hindu deity and towards a devotee’s relationship with that deity constitutes direct religious hostility. It also demonstrates the distinctly Hindu-specific nature of the abuse: the religious practice was identified, the deity was named, and the woman’s faith in that deity was mocked. The religious content was therefore integral to the insult and not incidental language within a violent confrontation. Beyond the specific reference to Lord Krishna, the denigration of Hindu gods and goddesses represents broader contempt for Hinduism itself. Hindu deities are central to Hindu religious life, worship, ritual practice and spiritual traditions, with gods and goddesses revered as manifestations and expressions of the Divine and as objects of devotion across diverse Hindu traditions. Therefore, abusing and denigrating multiple Hindu gods and goddesses was not an isolated personal insult; it subjected figures sacred to the Hindu faith to contempt. The targeting of several revered deities, alongside the mockery of Krishna devotion, demonstrates hostility extending beyond an individual dispute and showcases contempt for Hinduism and its sacred beliefs. Overall, the religious profiling of the Hindu victims, the denigration of Hindu religious beliefs and deities, and the specific mockery of Lord Krishna and Hindu devotion establish clear religious markers within the crime. The incident meets the parameters of a religiously motivated hate crime and is therefore being added to the Hinduphobia Tracker’s Hate Crime Database. Disclaimer: Although multiple Hindu family members were present during the incident, three Hindu victims have been identified from the available reports: the Hindu woman who was directly subjected to the anti-Hindu abuse, the nine-month-pregnant woman who was affected by the incident, and another elderly female family member shown in a media report. Accordingly, the victim count has been recorded as three. This is a conservative estimate for documentation purposes only.