Torture and Cruel, Inhuman or Degrading Treatment 

IPT 2.2 | April 2023 | Section 3

By state actors:

He accused the police of torture and violation of human rights during his over two years long detention.  He was arrested in October 2020, en route  Hathras. district, to report on the rape and murder of a Dalit woman by upper caste men there. Kappan has denied both allegations, accusing the police of trying to force a confession from him on alleged links to Islamic and left-wing terrorism. Atik-Ur-Rehman, a student activist who has also been in prison for two years for the same case, has become partially paralysed in prison due to lack of post-surgery care, according to his family. He was granted bail on March 15th for the UAPA case, but remains in prison under money laundering accusations.   

Johirul Islam, a 30-year-old Muslim man from West Bengal, was illegally detained from his house and tortured by the Border Security Force, a paramilitary force in India. The Company Commander Bijay Kumar was allegedly involved in the torture which has rendered Islam unable to walk properly and earn a living. The family also alleges that the local police did not register a police case against the perpetrators. 

Nawab and Shoaib were tortured by 3 Delhi Police personnel on March 7th, after they were involved in an accident when travelling in Delhi’s Anand Vihar area. According to Nawab’s complaint: “They tried to cut our hands with a knife. They also urinated on our faces, threatened to kill us and said they would dump our bodies in a drain. They accused us of slaughtering cows and robbed us of Rs 25,000.” The 3 policemen have been suspended and a police case registered against them and four others involved in the crime. 

Targeted attacks by Non-state actors:  

Targeted attacks by Non-state actors leading to mass violence:  

During the Hindu religious festival of Ram Navmi (on 30th March, celebrating the birth of the deity Lord Ram), violence erupted in Maharashtra, Bihar, Gujarat, West Bengal, Uttar Pradesh, Karnataka, Jharkhand states, with Hindu groups targeting Muslim majority localities  in urban areas.  Incidents of attacks on properties belonging to Muslims, were reported with burning and destructions of mosques, madarsa and houses and shops in Muslim neighbourhoods. The worst of the violence was seen in the states of Bihar, West Bengal and Maharashtra. Two persons are also reported having been killed: Shaikh Muniruddin (51) in Maharashtra, victim of attack, along with a Hindu teenager who died after being caught in the crossfire. Human Rights Watch in a report on the clashes has said that records show that authorities unfairly target Muslims in their response to the violence. 

Attacks against minorities during Hindu religious festivals have increased notably in the past years under BJP rule, with reports underscoring how Hindu processions force their way through Muslim localities armed with weapons, and playing Islamophobic songs over loud speakers. In 2022, 12 states witnessed similar violence, with a report by a lawyers collective titled ‘Routes of Wrath’ outlining the commonalities they analysed in their research: “.. all comprised of larger-than-usual gatherings of saffron-clad men drawing swords, waving trishuls and even (in some cases) firearms, taking deliberately mapped paths that crossed major mosques and Muslim-dominated neighbourhoods, and raising provocative slogans about the coming of a Hindu Rashtra, the conditions under which Muslims would be allowed to live in this nation, and even justifying violence against Muslims.” The violence in 2023  was also concentrated more in states where the BJP is not in power (Bihar and West Bengal are governed by regional political parties) or not in a clear majority (BJP is part of a coalition government with a regional party in the state). Investigations are revealing how the violence was planned by Hindutva groups using social media. In Uttar Pradesh, members of All India Hindu Mahasabha have been accused of slaughtering cows and framing innocent Muslim men under the state’s cow protection laws around the festival. The Chief Ministers of both Bihar and West Bengal have said that the violence was manufactured to create communal division in their states by BJP supported Hindutva groups. 

Other instances of attacks on minorities due to their identity have also been reported across the country: 

  • On January 12th, Paul Kumar (29), his wife Sushmita, and a relative Sonia were assaulted in Vaishali, Bihar, by Bajrang Dal members over allegations of religious conversion. In a video of the incident, the attackers can be seen beating Paul and saying, “whoever plays around (insults) our Ram, we will destroy him. Whoever tries to convert our Ram, we won’t spare him.” The police did not open an investigation into the case despite Bajrang Dal leader Aryan Singh claiming responsibility for the attack. 
  • On January 16th, several staff members of a Catholic education NGO working in Maharashtra’s Dhule district were physically attacked by a group of Hindutva activists who accused them of forced conversions.  
  • Two Korean nationals who were visiting the country were harassed by right wing workers in Meerut (Uttar Pradesh) who labelled them ‘Christian missionaries’. 
  • On January 12th, videos emerged of a Muslim man, Asim Hussain, being assaulted, stripped and forced to chant ‘Jai Shree Ram’ on a train in Uttar Pradesh. While the police identified two perpetrators based on the video, a few days after the incident a case was registered against Hussain for allegedly sexually harassing a woman on the same train.  
  • In January, Muslim owned shops were looted and vandalised in Assam after a Muslim man was charged with the murder of a Hindu man who was a Bajrang Dal activist. The Muslim man’s sister alleged that the murder victim had been harassing her for the past few weeks. 
  • On February 5th, Sheikh Uzefa and Mohammad Talha were stabbed and injured on their way to a mosque by Hindu assailants. Uzefa is a mosque imam, with the perpetrators throwing chilli powder in the imam’s eyes and stabbing both victims in the chest.  
  • On February 7th, a Muslim food delivery boy and law student Amran Tamboli was attacked by a group of men on the occasion of the Hindu festival of Holi, as he was en route to deliver food. A CCTV video of the incident show the attackers assault him with stones and bricks, forcibly applyling Holi colour on his beard and forehead.  
  • On February 12th, a right-wing Hindu mob led by a former local election candidate Ravindra Avhad, allegedly broke into the house of Sheikh Asgar in Madhya Pradesh’s Khandwa district, a Muslim local who was out with his family at the time. The mob placed a Hindu idol inside the house and began worshipping it, leading to clashes between the Hindus and Muslims in the area. 
  • On February 22nd, Nadir, a resident of Haryana’s Madokhra village, was attacked at Palwal Hathin crossing by a group led by the driver of the auto in which he was travelling, resulting in serious injuries to him. His family allege that he was attacked after his religious identity was ascertained.  
  • In another incident in Haryana on February 23rd during the same time, Salim and Mujahid, were stopped and beaten up by a group of three people when they were going to buy livestock. The incident took place at Haryana’s Manpur village, where both were attacked by a group of vigilantes, who they allege were right-wing activists. Salim was attacked by an axe and was gashed, while Mujahid was able to escape from the attackers. The victims also allege they were robbed by the attackers. While a police complaint has been registered, it does not include sections on crimes on religious grounds. 
  • Two minor Muslim girls, aged 6 and 7 years old, were raped by the son of a former village council head (Sarpanch) on March 8th in Bihar’s Begusarai district. The young victims have been hospitalised for treatment, with the family demanding justice. 
  • On March 14th, a mob pelted stones at a mosque in Karnataka Haveri district, along with attacks on Muslim homes and shops in the neighbourhood.  The mob was part of a rally to unveil a statue of Sangolli Rayanna, an Indian revolutionary who challenged British expansionism in the 19th century. They allege that Muslims had pelted stones at the statue and this attack was in retaliation of that. No confirmation of such an incident by Muslims is available.  
  • On March  25th, a Muslim jaggery seller Danish was assaulted and beaten by a mob armed with sticks in a market in Ghaziabad, Uttar Pradesh. Videos of the assault recorded show that the perpetrators came back to assault the victim after an altercation on allegations of animal cruelty.  

The misuse of terror, sexual violence laws against Muslim youth as part of the ‘love jihad’ narrative continues to impinge on their rights. There were multiple instances of non-state actors, especially Hindutva vigilante groups, assaulting Muslim men for allegedly talking to Hindu women. Some of such cases are described below: 

On January 6th, in Karnataka, a Muslim man, Afeed from Kallagundi, was brutally assaulted for allegedly befriending a minor girl from the Hindu community. While the police have registered a case against 12 people for assaulting him, the girl’s father has also registered a case against Afeed under the Protection of Children from Sexual Offences Act. 

On January 3rd, a Muslim postgraduate student in Madhya Pradesh was assaulted by a mob led by Hindutva group Hindu Student Army, with videos of the assault going viral on social media, for allegedly speaking to a Hindu girl. In the video the mob can be seen verbally and physically attacking him as the man pleads his innocence.  

On January 10th, two Muslim men Sarfaraz Khan and Salman Mansuri were assaulted by members of Hindu Student Army and Hindu Jagran Manch, and forced to chant ‘Jai Shree Ram’ for talking to a Hindu girl who was a friend of theirs. The men were then taken to the police station where a case was registered using the girl’s name alleging that one of the men was forcing her to marry him. Khan and Mansuri allege that the police refused to listen to them and instead heeded to their assaulters, and kept them in lock up for the night. An inspector at the police station told a journalist that in such cases while ‘generally the girls themselves file the complaints but we cannot say with certainty that the complainants are not influenced by the boys who assist them to file the complaints’, referring to the non-state actors and Hindutva vigilante groups. 

On January 22nd, Bajrang Dal members assaulted five Muslim men who were part of a group celebrating a Hindu friend’s birthday party in Indore, Madhya Pradesh. The perpetrators barged into a private residence, assaulted the Muslim men present there and forced them and the girl into a car to the police station. According to media reports, the girl was pressured by the perpetrators to file a complaint against her Muslim friends alleging that they were trying to convert her. A day after the incident, the Indore head of Bajrang Dal bragged on his Facebook group that the group had been tracking the men for weeks before they ‘caught’ them. The Police did not file any charges against the Bajrang Dal mob which was assaulting the men on private property, and instead detained the victims in a trend which is demonstrative of the state-non-state nexus in the ways ‘love-jihad’ is being created as a tool to criminalise Muslim youth. (Demonstrating the systemic nature of this trend, is how attempts to raise awareness of this nexus too are suppressed. The Muslim journalist, Zafar Aafaq, who wrote the article on this nexus, which is linked above, was detained and questioned by the Madhya Pradesh Police for three hours a few days after the article was published) 

In March, Bajrang Dal members beat up a Muslim man, Amir Khan, in Ujjain in Madhya Pradesh for speaking with a friend, who is a Hindu girl, in a park. The assaulters then took the pair to the police station, wherein the girl refused to lodge a complaint against her friend despite pressure from the Bajrang Dal to do so. The attack was also recorded and shared on social media, and while the attackers faced no police action, Amir spent the night in police custody despite no crime being committed by him. 

So-called Cow protection and other Hindu vigilante groups continue to assault Muslims for allegedly breaking cow protection laws, with victims suffering serious injuries, if not death, and loss of property, among others. Some of these incidents are mentioned below:  

On January 27th, Bajrang Dal members tied a Muslim youth, Gajivur Rahman, to an electricity pole and tortured him for allegedly selling beef in Karnataka. The police took the victim in custody on allegations of selling beef, while the perpetrators who have been recorded committing the crime on video were absconding as per the report on the incident. 

On 5th March, cow vigilantes attacked a Muslim truck driver over allegations of transporting cattle in Palwal, Haryana. An edited video of the attack was shared on social media by the perpetrators, a recurring trend in these attacks. In the video, the perpetrators have identified themselves as ‘teams’ of cow protectors with their jurisdictions of activity mentioned, namely: team Sonu Hindu, Palwal, team Parveen Vashisht, Faridabad, team Shailendra Hindu Palwal, team Shiva Dahiya, Ballabgarh. Such videos are circulated on social media by the vigilante groups inciting hostility and further violence, and demonstrating tacit state support to their actions with no legal accountability for their actions taken under the garb of cow-protection legislation. 

On March 7th, another Muslim man was assaulted by members of Bajrang Dal and Gau Raksha Dal (Cow Protection Army) in Mathura, Uttar Pradesh, over allegations of transporting beef. A video of that attack was also circulated on social media by the perpetrators. 

Police remain mute spectators to acts of violence committed by cow vigilantes. In this video from Punjab on February 6th, a group of men can be seen accosting a truck driver to stop and begin assaulting him, with voices in the video claiming that the truck was carrying cows being illegally smuggled. While the identity of the victim is unknown, police are present on the scene and do not protect the victim. Instead, one of the assailants in the video can be heard telling a police officer to handcuff the victim. The video stops abruptly before revealing if any cattle was found in the truck.