Kerala police threatens Hindus with legal action for sharing video of Muslim man desecrating Tulsi plant, claims he is "mentally unstable"
Thrissur, Kerala, India 
17 January, 2025
Case Summary
Hinduphobia Tracker reported the incident wherein a Muslim man named Abdul Hakeem desecrated a Tulsi plant located near the Guruvayur temple in Kerala. After the video of the incident went viral, people started reposting and sharing the video expressing anger over the act. Following this, the Kerala police arrested the accused. They also took to Facebook to threaten Hindus against sharing the video. The Thrissur City police claimed that Abdul Hakeem had been suffering from a mental illness for the past 25 years and was undergoing treatment. The police warned against sharing the video and said that legal action would be taken against defaulters. “A video of a young man in Guruvayur is seen circulating in social media in a way that creates communal rivalry. During the investigation, it was learned that the young man had a mental disorder and was under treatment for the past 25 years. Those who share the video and share posts related to it in a manner that creates communal rivalry will be subject to strict legal action”, read the post. Meanwhile, a purification ceremony was performed by VHP Joint Secretary Anoop, members of Hindu Aikya Vedi, members of the Temple Protection Committee and local devotees.
Why it is Hate Crime ?
This case has been added to the hate tracker under the prime category- Hate speech against Hindus and within this, the sub-category selected is- Violent threats. Violent threats, explicit, implicit or implied, is the most dangerous form of hate speech since it goes beyond discriminatory and prejudicial language to express the intent of causing harm to an individual or a group of people based on their religious identity and faith. There could be several different kinds of threats that are issued to Hindus based on religious animosity. An explicit threat would mean the direct threat of violence towards an individual Hindu, a group of Hindus or Hindus at large. Physical violence, death threats, threats of destruction of property belonging to Hindus and threats of genocide would mean explicit threats against Hindus for their religious identity. Implicit threats may not be a direct threat but implied through the use of symbols of actions – for example – in the Nupur Sharma case, other than explicit threats, there were also implicit threats when Islamists took to the streets to burn and beat her effigies. It implies that they want to do the same to Nupur Sharma – thereby is considered an implicit threat. Violent threats can be delivered in person, through letters, phone calls, graffiti, or increasingly through social media and other online platforms. It would be important to understand that a threat – explicit or implicit, online or offline – to an individual who happens to be a Hindu does not qualify as a religiously motivated threat. Such a threat, while vile and dangerous, could be owing to non-religious reasons and/or personal animosity. To qualify as a religiously motivated threat, it would need to exhibit an indication that the individual is being targeted for religious reasons and/or owing to his/her religious identity as a Hindu. The act of desecrating the Tulsi plant, a sacred Hindu symbol, already generated significant anger and emotional distress within the Hindu community. However, the police, instead of focusing solely on the criminal act, issued a direct warning against Hindus sharing the video of the incident. This warning threatened legal action against those who reposted the video or shared related posts. The threat of legal action served not only to suppress the outrage but also to intimidate Hindus from expressing their legitimate concerns about the disrespect shown toward their religious symbol. It is important to mention here, that the police claimed that Abdul Hakeem has been suffering from a mental illness for the past 25 years and is undergoing treatment. In several cases, where Muslims vandalise and desecrate Hindu places of worship, a usual trope to shield the perpetrator is to attribute the crime to the mental health of the accused, claiming that the crime was committed since the perpetrator was ‘mentally ill’ or ‘mentally unstable’. The police and the media, in many such cases, where the crime has been committed against the Hindu faith by a non-Hindu perpetrator, deny that the crime committed was in any way motivated by a religious bias and attribute it to the perpetrator’s mental health. Many a time the police downplay incidents of low-level communal crime because it is their jurisdiction that comes under question. The police also often say that the crime was committed since the accused was mentally unstable because they wish to ensure that owing to the crime already committed, there is no further flare-up in the area. In fact, there are many cases where this strategy has been used by the media to downplay such incidents where the crime was committed by a Muslim perpetrator, for example, the attack on the Gorakhnath temple or the incident in Telangana where two Muslim women wearing burqa tried to damage temple and church idols. Likewise, in this case too, when a Muslim minor was caught vandalising the Hindu idol, the police attributed the act to his mental illness. The use of the "mental illness" trope to justify crimes targeting Hindu temples or idols by Muslim perpetrators raises critical questions. If perpetrators are indeed mentally unstable, why do they specifically target Hindu idols and places of worship, leaving mosques untouched? This selective focus suggests that such acts are not driven by mental health issues but by religious animosity. The repeated use of this narrative to downplay crimes against Hindus reflects a strategic effort to whitewash religious hatred, obscuring the true motivations and intentions behind the attacks.
Case Status
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Perpetrators Details
Perpetrators
State and Establishment
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