Hindu man tricked into consuming cow meat by Muslim man in Varanasi, Uttar Pradesh

Case ID : d327376 | Location : Varanasi, Uttar Pradesh, India | Date of Incident : Wed, 24 September, 2025

Case ID : d327376

Varanasi, Uttar Pradesh, India

24 September, 2025

Hindu man tricked into consuming cow meat by Muslim man in Varanasi, Uttar Pradesh

Attack on Hindu religious representations

Defiling religious customs

Attack not resulting in death

Attacked for Hindu identity

Case Summary

In Varanasi, Uttar Pradesh, a Hindu man named Virendra Yadav was tricked into consuming cow meat (beef) by a Muslim man named Aftab Alam. The perpetrator did this despite knowing the sacredness of the holy cow in Hinduism. This further resulted in Virendra Yadav getting angry over this deception and religious desecration, and he went and killed Aftab. This incident came to light when the police arrested Virendra for the murder. Virendra strangled twenty-eight-year-old Aftab Alam and dumped his body in a field in the Sindhaura area at the beginning of January 2026. While Virendra was a resident of Varanasi, Aftab hailed from Chhapra district in Bihar. Aftab’s family denied the accusations that Aftab tricked Virendra into eating cow meat. His father, Kalamuddin, claimed that his son was killed over financial reasons and not over any religious issue. According to Station House Officer Gyanendra Tripathi of Sindhaura police station, Virendra said during questioning that Aftab had deceived him into consuming cow meat in September 2025. He further said that Aftab later disclosed the incident to others, resulting in Virendra being subjected to mockery and humiliation among acquaintances. Police said he stated this led him to plan the murder.

Why it is Hate Crime ?

This case is being added to the tracker under the primary category- Attack on Hindu religious representations. The subcategory selected is- Defiling religious customs. Sanatan Dharma is not a religion of one book, which is to say that while it has religious scriptures that form the central tenets of the faith, there are several traditions followed through thousands of years, mostly passed from generation to generation orally. There are several such customs and traditions that are followed by various Hindus and Hindu sects. Defiling of these traditions and customs is a breach of an individual or group’s religious practices. Such practices can range from dietary restrictions like not eating non-vegetarian food for a certain period of the year, not eating non-vegetarian food at all, not eating beef since the cow is considered holy in Hinduism, the sanctity of religious customs followed in the house (like many ISCKON devotees), etc. Any malicious action leading to the breach of such traditions or defilement of these traditions owing to animosity towards the faith or for the sake of activism stems not only from the lack of faith in the religion itself but also from disregard for the faith of the devotees who follow the customs/traditions and implicit bias against the faith, the tradition itself. Since these specific traditions are central to the faith of the devotees of that specific sect of Hindus, any non-compliance with these traditional rules would be considered a religiously motivated hate crime. Another primary category selected in this case is- Attack not resulting in death. The subcategory 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. This case was a clear instance of a religiously motivated hate crime, as a Muslim man named Aftab Alam tricked a Hindu man, Virendra Yadav, into eating cow meat (beef). The cow holds profound sacred significance in Hinduism, revered as a gentle mother figure symbolising non-violence (ahimsa), motherhood, and divine sustenance that provides milk and embodies all gods. Consuming beef ranks as one of the gravest sins in Hinduism, viewed as ultimate desecration that severs spiritual purity, pollutes the soul, and mocks the faith's core tenets of reverence for life. Aftab Alam's deliberate act of deception showcased malicious intent to target and desecrate Virendra's deeply revered Hindu beliefs, going far beyond any random mischief or accident to inflict calculated religious humiliation. Aftab targeted Virendra specifically because of his Hindu identity, selecting him for this profane act to attack his faith directly and humiliate him among peers after public disclosure. This deliberate assault on a person's religious sentiments, exploiting sacred taboos to cause emotional and spiritual harm, amounted to a textbook religiously motivated hate crime aimed at wounding the broader Hindu community's dignity and defiling its inviolable traditions. The act of tricking the Hindu man into eating cow meat by the Muslim perpetrator showcased a pattern of targeted hostility observed in past incidents, where Muslim extremists often force-fed or deceived Hindus into consuming beef purposefully to desecrate their faith and pressure conversion to Islam. This coercive and deceptive beef force-feeding demonstrates deep-seated animosity, and Aftab Alam's identical tactic of tricking Virendra Yadav matched that same pattern of religiously motivated aggression against Hindus, cementing it as a hate crime. While Virendra's later killing of Aftab was wrong under the law, it did not negate Aftab's initial crime, which stemmed from clear religious animosity and bias against Hinduism. Since this case is a clear case of a religiously motivated crime, it is being added to the hate crime database of the Hinduphobia Tracker. Disclaimer: The Hinduphobia Tracker records incident dates based on when a crime occurred, rather than when it is reported by the media. In this case, media reports did not specify the exact date when the accused, Aftab Alam, deceived Virendra Yadav into eating beef. They only mentioned that police first reported the incident on their social media handle on 25 January 2026, and that Virendra Yadav was made to eat beef in September 2025 without a specific date. Hence, based on this information, an indicative date of 25 September 2025 is selected as an estimate of when the crime occurred. This indicative date is recorded for documentation purposes only.