Hindu students threatened by Muslim politician for organising Saraswati Puja at a college in Kolkata, West Bengal

Case ID : d3272e2 | Location : Kolkata, West Bengal, India | Date of Incident : Thu, 22 January, 2026

Case ID : d3272e2

Kolkata, West Bengal, India

22 January, 2026

Hindu students threatened by Muslim politician for organising Saraswati Puja at a college in Kolkata, West Bengal

Restriction/ban on Hindu practices

Administration restricting religious practice

Restriction on expression of Hindu identity

Hate speech against Hindus

Violent threats

Case Summary

In South Kolkata, West Bengal, Hindu students were threatened for organising Saraswati Puja by All India Trinamool Congress (TMC) Muslim politician Daud Alam Molla. This occurred at the government-sponsored Jogesh Chandra Chaudhuri College. Saraswati Puja, also known as Vasant Panchami, honours Goddess Saraswati, the Hindu deity of knowledge, wisdom, music, arts, and learning. This festival, marking spring's arrival, symbolises renewal, intellectual growth, and new educational beginnings, with rituals like placing books and instruments before her idol for blessings. It holds deep cultural importance in India, especially for students and artists seeking success, often featuring the Aksharabhyasa rite to initiate children into learning. According to media reports, this incident came to light when a female Hindu student studying at the government-sponsored Jogesh Chandra Chaudhuri College in South Kolkata informed that an All India Trinamool Congress leader, Daud Alam Molla, threatened them against organising Saraswati Puja. A video of the victim went viral on social media. In the viral video, the victim stated, “Daud Alam Molla is standing outside. He has threatened me that he will f*** my lawyer.” Notably, Jogesh Chandra Chaudhuri Law College is the alma mater of West Bengal Chief Minister and All India Trinamool Congress supremo Mamata Banerjee. This was not the first time such an anti-Hindu act had been done by the All India Trinamool Congress. The Hinduphobia Tracker previously reported that in January 2025, Mohammad Shabbir Ali, the then General Secretary of the West Bengal State Trinamool Chhatra Parishad, threatened Hindu students with rape and murder if they dared to perform Saraswati Puja.

Why it is Hate Crime ?

This case is being added to the tracker under the primary category- Restriction/ban on Hindu practices. The subcategory selected is- Administration restricting religious practice. In several cases, it is seen that the administration/state disallows a religious practice owing to prejudicial orders and concerns, targeted specifically against the Hindu community. Such restriction/prohibition would be considered documented as a hate crime because the orders are often a result of pressure by groups that harbour animosity towards Hinduism and Hindus. Often, the restriction by the authorities is driven by bias, hostility, or prejudice against the specific community being stopped from holding a religious practice, by pressure groups that harbour animosity towards Hindus, intrinsic to their faith. Since practices are intrinsic to the faith of the Hindus, such prejudicial restriction is considered a curtailing of the fundamental rights of the Hindu community. In several cases, for example, the authorities ban a Hindu religious practice due to pressure from groups opposed to the religion. In other instances the prohibition is selectively enforced against one religious group (Hindus) while others are allowed to proceed. There are still other cases where the authorities preemptively restrict a religious practice by Hindus because those who hold animosity towards Hindus may get “provoked” leading to them being violent, thereby assuaging the sentiments of those who hold animosity towards Hindus by curtailing the religious rights of Hindus. Such acts and orders are prejudiced, indicating discriminatory motives owing to the capitulation to groups that harbour animosity towards Hindus and therefore, would be categorized as a religiously motivated hate crime since the original pressure leading to the order itself is a result of hatred/bias/prejudice/religious hate against Hindus. The other subcategory selected is- Restriction on expression of Hindu identity. An example of the state-affected prejudicial and targeted orders against the Hindu community would be a government denying the right of a Hindu or a group of Hindus to hold a religious procession owing to the animosity of non-Hindu groups. Denial of the religious right of the Hindus to assuage the non-Hindu group which harbours animosity to a point where it could lead to violence against Hindus is not only a failure of law and order but is a prejudicial order against Hindus, denying them their fundamental rights to express their religious identity. An example of a hate crime against Hindus by a non-Hindu would be a non-Hindu institution forcing its Hindu employees to abandon religious symbols that a Hindu would wear as an expression of faith owing to inherent prejudice against the faith professed by the victim or a non-Hindu group of people restricting a Hindu group from constructing a place of worship simply because the demography of the area in which the temple is being built is dominated by non-Hindus. Such actions are driven by religious animosity and/or prejudice against Hindus and their faith and would therefore be categorized as a hate crime. Another primary category selected in this case is- Hate Speech against Hindus. The subcategory 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. This incident represented a clear case of a religiously motivated hate crime, as Hindu students at Jogesh Chandra Chaudhuri College in South Kolkata faced threats from All India Trinamool Congress leader Daud Alam Molla, a Muslim by faith, simply for organising Saraswati Puja, a sacred Hindu festival honouring Goddess Saraswati, the deity of knowledge, wisdom, music, arts, and learning. Celebrated on Vasant Panchami, Saraswati Puja marks the arrival of spring and symbolises renewal, intellectual growth, and new educational beginnings, with rituals such as placing books and musical instruments before Goddess Saraswati's idol for blessings and the Aksharabhyasa rite initiating children into learning. It holds profound religious and cultural significance in India, particularly for students and artists seeking success. The accused threatened the Hindu students not for any other reason but solely for organising this puja, showcasing his religious animosity towards the Hindu community and public expressions of their faith. As a member of the ruling All India Trinamool Congress in West Bengal, this represented a state-sanctioned attempt to suppress a Hindu religious practice. This incident restricted the expression of Hindu identity altogether, suppressing the Hindu students' fundamental rights and instilling fear in educational institutions. By coercing them to abandon a cherished religious observance in a government-sponsored college, the threats created a chilling effect, making Hindu students feel unsafe and marginalised when asserting their faith publicly. Such intimidation signalled that Hindu identity must remain concealed in shared spaces, eroding their constitutional rights to religious expression and fostering an environment of vulnerability. The violent threats showcased the religiously motivated nature of this crime, revealing Daud Alam Molla's deep animosity towards Hinduism and the Hindu female students organising Saraswati Puja. He stood outside the college and menacingly threatened Hindu students, including sexually explicit threats, deploying crude and terrifying language solely to bully them into abandoning this peaceful ritual honouring Goddess Saraswati. No other provocation existed; the threats arose purely from the students' intent to perform a tradition central to the Hindu faith, education and learning in a college environment. This blatant targeting of a sacred Hindu observance demonstrated intent to intimidate the community, erase their visible faith from public spaces, and replace devotion with paralysing fear. This incident was not isolated, as a similar targeting occurred in January 2025 when Mohammad Shabbir Ali, then General Secretary of the West Bengal State Trinamool Chhatra Parishad, threatened Hindu students with rape and murder if they dared to perform Saraswati Puja. This repeated targeting of the same sacred Hindu festival, alongside disruptions to other festivities, showcased a clear pattern by All India Trinamool Congress affiliates aimed at suppressing Hindu religious expression in educational and public spaces. Such religiously motivated intimidation, issuing violent threats solely against Hindu practices, constituted hate crimes by instilling fear, promoting enmity towards the community, and eroding their right to cultural observances. Additionally, over the past several years, a disturbing pattern has emerged in West Bengal where incidents targeting Hindus, their temples, and festivals have occurred and received support from the state and administration. This targeting has become institutionalised under the leadership of Chief Minister Mamata Banerjee, whose government stands accused of deliberately shielding anti-Hindu elements while clamping down on Hindu rights. There are increasing instances where the state actively suppresses Hindu religious expression. Hindus have been arrested simply for chanting “Jai Shri Ram”, a phrase vilified by the administration and the ruling party. Permission for Hindu processions, especially during festivals like Ram Navami or Hanuman Jayanti, is routinely denied on grounds of "law and order concerns", while Muslim religious gatherings face no such hurdles. Moreover, over the years, the Mamata-led government issued numerous prejudicial directives, like orders restricting Durga Puja immersions citing Muharram processions. Inaction on anti-Hindu mob violence in areas like Dhulian, Islampur, and Kaliachak. Public endorsements and appeasement of radical clerics and Islamist leaders, while dismissing concerns raised by Hindu groups as “communal provocation”. The systematic suppression of Hindu voices, denial of communal violence, and criminalisation of Hindu identity expressions such as “Jai Shri Ram” reflect not just administrative failure but deeper ideological hostility towards the Hindu community. Even communal attacks against Hindus have been downplayed by the state and police authorities. A glaring example of this systemic whitewashing appears in the handling of the Murshidabad violence, as well as multiple other incidents in Basirhat, Malda, Midnapore, and Uttar Dinajpur. In the Basirhat case (March 2025), for instance, when a Kali temple was vandalised and the idol desecrated, the police quickly dismissed the communal nature of the attack and labelled the perpetrator as “mentally unstable” without serious investigation or due process. In the aftermath of widespread anti-Hindu violence in Murshidabad and Malda (April 2025), which included arson, looting, and idol desecration, the West Bengal Police attempted to present the violence as “minor clashes” or “local disputes” unrelated to religion. Reports indicated that despite credible accounts of Hindu homes and temples being attacked, the police either failed to act in time or took a biased stance that allowed the violence to escalate. In many cases, police statements contradicted eyewitness reports and video evidence shared on social media, showcasing institutionalised bias against Hindus who are victims of hate crimes. Altogether, this showcases that this attack, targeting a Hindu festival, Saraswati Puja, and threatening Hindu students, amounts to a clear instance of a religiously motivated offence. Therefore, this case has been added to the hate crime database of the Hinduphobia Tracker.