Hindu temple accountant attacked with acid; accused said 'Happy Holi' before attacking him

Case ID : 90a0a86 | Location : Hyderabad, Telangana, India | Date of Incident : Tue, 11 March, 2025

Case ID : 90a0a86

Hyderabad, Telangana, India

11 March, 2025

Hindu temple accountant attacked with acid; accused said 'Happy Holi' before attacking him

Attack not resulting in death

Attacked for Hindu identity

Hate speech against Hindus

Anti-Hindu slurs, mocking faith

Case Summary

In Saidabad, Hyderabad, Telangana, a Hindu temple accountant named Narsingh Rao Gopi was attacked with acid at the Pedda Thota Bhu Lakshmi Temple by an unidentified man. According to NDTV, a video of the CCTV footage of the temple went viral online, showing an unidentified man standing next to a table where Narsingh Rao was seated, working on some papers and conversing with the accused. The footage captures the moment when the accused reaches for a container and suddenly throws acid on Gopi before fleeing the temple premises. According to a video on the news report by NDTV, the accused wished Gopi "Happy Holi" before throwing acid on him. The CCTV footage showed Gopi in immense pain, desperately trying to remove the acid from his body. Temple staff immediately rushed him to Yashoda Hospital in Malakpet for treatment. The police were informed, and an official complaint was filed regarding the incident.

Why it is Hate Crime ?

This case has been added as a religiously motivated hate crime under two prime categories of the tracker. The first is- Attack not resulting in death. Under this, the sub-category 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 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 second category selected here is- Hate speech against Hindus and within this, the sub-category 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. Here, the perpetrator wished 'Happy Holi' to the Temple accountant before throwing acid on him. The explicit mention of ‘Happy Holi’ before the attack serves as a direct indicator of religious motivation. Without this verbal provocation, the incident could have been misconstrued as a personal dispute or an act of violence not motivated by religion. However, by mockingly referencing a Hindu festival right before committing a heinous act, the attacker made their intent clear—targeting a Hindu temple official while simultaneously ridiculing a sacred celebration. This detail removes ambiguity regarding motive and firmly establishes the act as a hate crime driven by animosity towards Hindus and their religious practices. If the attack had been based on a personal vendetta, there would have been no reason to invoke Holi—a festival symbolic of Hindu religious and cultural identity—right before carrying out the assault. Consequently, this case has been added to the tracker as a hate cirme.