Muslim men abuse and assault a Hindu man in Pune with iron rods for playing Ram bhajans in his car
Pune, Maharashtra, India 
9 October, 2023
Case Summary
On October 9th, the Maharashtra Police booked four persons identified as Adnan Sheikh, Mobin Sheikh, Shahbaz Sheikh, and Abdul Sayyed for brutally assaulting a young man identified as Amit Pardeshi for playing songs of Lord Rama. The accused threatened the victim and hit him with iron rods resulting in severe injuries. The incident is said to have happened in the Mundhwa region of Maharashtra’s Pune district. The incident happened on the evening of 8th October. As per the FIR copy obtained by OpIndia, the victim was driving with his friends in a Swift car at around 11:30 p.m. He had Hindu devotional songs playing on car speakers, which is when the accused arrived on the bike and stopped the car. They then threatened the victim and warned them not to play songs of Shri Ram in ‘their’ locality. Mundhwa region in the city of Pune houses a Muslim majority population.
Why it is Hate Crime ?
Hindu devotees are a few of the easiest targets of religiously motivated hate crimes because during the festival/procession/puja etc, for non-Hindus it is easy to profile their victims on the basis of religion. Hindu devotees come under attack on several occasions by individual non-Hindus or mobs of non-Hindus owing to their animosity against Hinduism, its symbols and tradition/practices. There are several instances of Hindu devotees being attacked while they worship in temples or temporary religious structures, during religious processions, doing bhajan/kirtan/puja in their own homes, in the residential society etc. These attacks are perpetrated by non-Hindus primarily because of their animosity towards Hindus and their faith. In some cases, the trigger for the violence may be non-religious, however, there are two elements that make these hate crimes. First, the Hindus who come under attack are attacked violently while indulging in religious activity. Whether they are in a place of worship or not is immaterial to the crime. When individuals are attacked while indulging in religious practices, the attack in itself is a hindrance to their freedom to practice religion and therefore constitutes a hate crime. Secondly, religious supremacist doctrines and ideologies deem the religious practices of Hindus to be offensive ab initio since they are considered “sinful” by these ideologies, worthy to be annihilated by force or coercion. Driven by these religious supremacist ideologies and doctrines, the attacks against Hindu devotees stem from intrinsic animosity towards Hinduism. In some cases, the trigger for the violence may be non-religious, however, it develops into a religiously motivated crime during the course of the violence. Since these attacks stem from animosity towards Hindus and Hinduism, they are considered religiously motivated hate crimes under this category. Further, the case has also been added to the sub-category 'attacked for crossing Muslim area'. One of the reasons that Hindus get attacked unprovoked specifically by Islamists is for crossing ‘Muslim areas’. Essentially, Muslim mobs often attack Hindus crossing or present in certain areas which have a majority Muslim population. It has often been cited as one of the reasons to blame Hindus for attacks against themselves, signalling that Hindus displaying religious symbols, taking our religious processions or crossing any area which is dominated by Muslim residents is a provocation in and of itself. These areas are mostly ghettoized areas where mobs mobilize quickly to attack Hindus for a variety of reasons like playing music during a religious procession, crossing a mosque, wearing a tilak or any other religious symbol in a Muslim-dominated area, praying at a local temple in that area etc. There have been cases where the few local Hindus of that area have been attacked on their way to the Temple for prayers as well, simply because the area is considered a Muslim-dominated area. Several times, it is entirely possible that the immediate trigger for the violence against Hindus was non-religious in nature, however, the violence became religiously motivated in nature because the area was Muslim dominated and the residents on the whole harboured animosity towards Hindus, evidenced from the actions of the mob, the slogans, and the nature of the attack. Such crimes are motivated by the religious identity of the victims and are therefore classified as hate crimes under this category. In this case, the Hindu man was brutally attacked by Islamists for playing bhajans (devotional songs) in his car. Bhajans are a form of religious expression and worship in Hinduism. Attacking individuals for performing or playing bhajans is an attempt to suppress their right to practice their religion. Moreover, it is an act of hostility directed at their faith and religious identity. The attack, in this case, was unprovoked as the benign Hindu devotee was merely playing bhajans in his car, without creating any sort of disturbance for others. However, the Muslim perpetrators, out of their animosity for the Hindu religion, found it disturbing and launched a vicious attack on the victim. Since intrinsic animosity towards Hindus and their religious beliefs became the motivating factor of the crime, this case has been documented as a religiously motivated hate crime in this tracker.
Victim Details
Total Victim
1
Deceased
0
Gender
- Male 1
- Female 0
- Third Gender 0
- Unknown 0
Caste
- SC/ST 0
- OBC 0
- General 0
- Unknown 1
Age Group
- Minor 0
- Adult 1
- Senior Citizen 0
- Unknown 0
Case Status
Arrested
Perpetrators Details
Perpetrators
Muslim Extremists
Perpetrators Range
From 2 To 5
Perpetrators Gender
male
Sources 
