Hindu man and his family brutally attacked by Muslim mob over suspicion of helping interfaith couple

Case ID : e27523f | Location : Shirol, Maharashtra, India | Date of Incident : Sun, 24 August, 2025

Case ID : e27523f

Shirol, Maharashtra, India

24 August, 2025

Hindu man and his family brutally attacked by Muslim mob over suspicion of helping interfaith couple

Men attacked for being associated with non-Hindu women

Attacked/killed for being associated or suspicion of being associated with Muslim woman

Attack not resulting in death

Attacked for Hindu identity

Communal clash/attack

Case Summary

In Kanwad village of Kolhapur, Maharashtra, a Hindu man named Akshay Ashok Koli, along with his family, was brutally attacked by a Muslim mob after a Muslim girl eloped with a Hindu man. The Muslim mob, suspecting that Koli and his family had helped the couple to elope, assaulted them brutally. Ten people, including two women, were arrested by the Shirol police. They were produced before the Jaysingpur court, and as of writing the report, they were remanded to two days’ police custody. According to reports, the Muslim girl eloped with a Hindu man named Ganesh Bankar. The victim, Akshay Ashok Koli, and his family were targeted by the girl's relatives, who suspected that Koli had helped the girl escape with her partner. As a result, a violent Muslim mob led by Javed Mujawar, armed with stones, sticks and chains, launched a brutal attack on Koli's family. They stormed into Koli's residence and brutally assaulted his mother, Sunita Koli, father Ashok Koli, cousin Seema Koli, cousin Sandeep Koli and younger brother Rishikesh Koli, leaving them seriously injured. According to Akshay Koli, his father called him around 7:30 pm, informing him that a Muslim mob had attacked their house. Hearing this, Akshay Koli immediately rushed to his house. However, Akshay, on his way home, was stopped by Javed Mujawar, who dragged him by his collar and assaulted him with a chain. Javed Mujawar and his associates, including Asim Chulu, brutally attacked him, repeatedly hitting him in the head and genitals. Akshay's father was attacked with a stone on his leg, leaving it nearly fractured, while other family members were beaten inside the house. Askhay Koli revealed that there were nearly 150-200 people were involved in the assault, describing it as a premeditated attack. He further stated that the Muslim mob even attempted to cause an explosion by repeatedly dropping a gas cylinder inside the house. Akshay Koli was seriously injured, sustaining nine head injuries and multiple blows to his body, while his mother Sunita, father Ashok, cousin Seema, cousin Sandeep and younger brother Rishikesh also suffered injuries. The violence continued as the Muslim mob chased the injured Koli to the hospital, where the mob stood outside the hospital premises, preventing the family from reaching the police. As of the date of writing this report, police had arrested ten people, including two women, who were produced before the court. Akshay Koli demanded that the perpetrators be charged with attempted murder for the planned and organised assault on his family.

Why it is Hate Crime ?

This case has been added to the tracker under the primary category of - Men attacked for being associated with non-Hindu women. Within it, the sub-category selected is - Attacked/killed for being associated or suspicion of being associated with Muslim woman. There have been several cases documented of Hindu men/boys being attacked specifically by Muslim groups/mobs for merely being associated or suspicion of being associated or being seen with a Muslim woman in public. In most of such cases, the Hindu man is not in a relationship with the Muslim woman, however, the mob proceeds to threaten and/or assault the Hindu man for merely being associated with the Muslim woman in any capacity. The rise of such crimes stems from a particularly sinister campaign run by several Muslim ideologues and activists. The campaign claims that Hindu men are attempting to ‘lure’ Muslim women into relationships to ensure that Muslim women leave their faith and follow Hinduism. The propaganda has been spearheaded with the help of WhatsApp groups and the extensive use of social media, sans evidence of the same. In many cases, pamphlets were fabricated to lend credence to this campaign. The root of this campaign lies in the fact that several cases of sectarian crimes against Hindu women in relationships with Muslim men have been documented. In such cases, Hindu women have often been forced/pressured to convert to Islam, assaulted, threatened and even murdered owing specifically to their religious identity and their refusal to give up that religious identity to adopt Islam. To delegitimize the suffering of Hindu women when such sectarian crimes are committed against them, the theory of ‘Bhagwa Love Trap’ was floated by sections of the Muslim community. As this theory gained traction, Muslim mobs started targeting Hindu men who were seen with Muslim women. In several such cases, the Hindu man was assaulted merely for offering to drop a Muslim woman in his vehicle or being friends. The differentiating factor between such cases and legitimate cases of Hindu women being targeted while in a relationship with Muslim men is that there is no sectarian violence, and force/pressure to convert. The nature of sectarian violence against Hindu women is not about two adults in a consensual relationship, working together, studying together, or even marrying each other where religious considerations are declared. In this category of crimes, it is pertinent to remember that in none of the cases, there is an element of the Hindu man masking his identity or forced religious conversion. Such cases are driven by specific religious motivations and against the religious identity of the victim and are therefore qualified as hate crimes. The second primary category selected here is - Attack not resulting in death. Within it, the sub-category selected here 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 sub-category relevant here is - Communal clash/attack. Communal clash is a form of collective violence that involves clashes between groups belonging to different religious identities. For a communal clash between Hindus and non-Hindus to qualify as a religiously motivated hate crime, the trigger of the violence itself would have to be anti-Hindu in essence. For example, if there is a Hindu religious procession that comes under attack from a non-Hindu mob and after the initial attack, Hindus retaliate in self-defence, leading to a communal clash between the two religious communities. While at a later stage, both communities are involved in the clash/violence, the initial trigger of the violence was by the non-Hindu mob against the Hindus and therefore, it could safely be termed as an anti-Hindu violence. Further, the trigger would also have to be religiously motivated. In the cited example, the attack by the non-Hindu mob was against religious processions and therefore, can be concluded to be religiously motivated. In some cases, the trigger may be non-religious, however, it develops into religious violence against Hindus at a later stage. In such cases too, the foundational animosity towards Hindus becomes the motivating factor of the crime and therefore, it would be classified as a religiously motivated hate crime against Hindus under this category. This case has been added to the tracker because a Hindu man and his family were brutally and violently attacked by a Muslim mob. The assault happened because the mob suspected that Akshay Koli had helped a Muslim girl escape with her Hindu partner. This suspicion alone was enough for the mob to launch a brutal attack on the Koli household. They even attempted to cause an explosion, indicating that they were willing to murder the Hindu family over nothing more than suspicion. The violence was not spontaneous but planned, organised, and rooted in religious hatred. The Muslim mob took issue with the fact that a Muslim girl had eloped with a Hindu boy and directed their rage at Akshay Koli simply because they suspected him of assisting the interfaith couple. The violence was driven by religious hostility towards Hindus and the desire to enforce sectarian boundaries through fear and violence. Such attacks serve as a warning to the wider Hindu community that any Hindu man who is seen to associate with a Muslim woman, or even support an interfaith couple, will be met with the same fate. The sheer intensity and scale of the assault make it clear that this was not an isolated or personal dispute but an expression of collective religious animosity towards the Hindu community. This reflects an Islamist supremacist mindset, where Muslims view interfaith relationships with Hindus as something to be opposed or crushed through violence, since Hindus are seen as socially and religiously inferior. The justification for such attacks also stems from the conspiracy theory of the ‘Bhagwa Love Trap’, which is explicitly rooted in anti-Hindu sentiment. This false narrative vilifies Hindu men by portraying them as predators targeting Muslim women, despite having no basis in reality. It is deliberately weaponised to legitimise violence against Hindus in interfaith relationships. In this case, too, the Muslim mob attacked Akshay Koli and his family based purely on suspicion that he had helped an interfaith couple. By carrying out such organised violence, the attackers not only punished one family but also sent a wider message of intimidation to the Hindu community, enforcing sectarian dominance through violence. Disclaimer – Although the police only arrested 10 people, the victim stated that around 150–200 individuals were part of the mob. Therefore, the number of perpetrators has been recorded as 200.