Hindu man from Valmiki community brutally beaten and abused with caste based slurs by Muslim mob

Case ID : aa4aff9 | Location : Meerut, Uttar Pradesh, India | Date of Incident : Thu, 24 April, 2025

Case ID : aa4aff9

Meerut, Uttar Pradesh, India

24 April, 2025

Hindu man from Valmiki community brutally beaten and abused with caste based slurs by Muslim mob

Attack not resulting in death

Attacked for Hindu identity

Hate speech against Hindus

Anti-Hindu slurs, mocking faith

Case Summary

In the Meerut district in Uttar Pradesh, a Muslim mob brutally assaulted a Hindu youth, Satyendra Kumar, belonging to the Valmiki community. The incident took place during a wrestling event in Khadoli village under Kankarkheda police station limits. Councillor Amina Khan and her son, Danish Saifi, had organised a wrestling competition for five days in Kharauli without the permission of the police administration. Satyendra had gone to watch the event when he crossed paths with Danish Saifi, who abused him and ordered him to leave. When Satyendra objected to the abuse, Danish Saifi, along with Shan Saifi and others present, physically attacked him. Within moments, hundreds of Muslims gathered at the spot and launched a violent assault on Satyendra. He was chased, beaten mercilessly with fists, kicks, belts, and sticks, and subjected to caste-based abuses. The mob orchestrated a mob lynching attempt, leaving Satyendra seriously injured. Following the attack, Satyendra was rushed to the district hospital, where he remained in critical condition. The police, on the basis of Satendra's complaint, registered a case under the SC/ST Act and assault against nine accused, namely, councillor's son Danish Saifi, Shan, Mehtaab, Sajid, Sadiq, Anas, Nadeem, Shanu, and Anwar and 100 to 150 unidentified individuals from the Muslim community. Police initially detained three accused on Saturday (April 26) night but later released them. However, on Sunday morning (April 27), raids were conducted, leading to the arrest of Salauddin Saifi, Sajid, Namil, Anas, Rihan, and Naveed. These arrests were made based on a video that had gone viral online. CO Daurala confirmed that six individuals were arrested, and efforts are underway to apprehend the remaining accused.

Why it is Hate Crime ?

This case is categorised under the primary category- Attack not resulting in death. Under that, the relevant sub-category 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 other primary category selected is- Hate Speech against Hindus. Under that, the relevant sub-category 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 constitutes a hate crime because Satyendra Kumar was attacked solely for his Hindu identity, without any provocation or conflict preceding the assault. Here, Satyendra’s Hindu identity was sufficient for the attackers to subject him to a mob assault and caste based slurs. It can be argued that a caste-specific slur is aimed at his micro identity of belonging to the Dalit section of the Hindu community and not his Hindu identity itself. However, as far as Abrahamic religions are concerned, the micro identities of caste, region, and language are secondary. It is the religious identity that drives the animosity of the perpetrator against the Hindu victim. In this case, while Muslims hurled caste abuses at the victim, the animosity was driven by their animosity towards Hinduism and Hindus. While the immediate trigger of the violence could be the "crossing path with Danish Saifi " as mentioned in the report, the fact that caste slurs were hurled at the victim by the perpetrator makes it a religiously motivated hate crime against the victim.