Mumbai: A 21-year-old man from Uttar Pradesh working in Mumbai’s Dadar was allegedly threatened and beaten up on suspicion of being a Rohingya Muslim, according to his employer, with police saying they have booked nine people including local BJP leader Akshata Tendulkar.
According to a complaint filed by hawker Saurabh Mishra, who employed Sofiyan Shahid Ali at his cart, a group of about 50-60 people Thursday reached the place where he puts up his cart and started asking for the Aadhar card details of his workers.
The incident happened on 24 April, just two days after the terror attack in Pahalgam.
“They then assaulted one of my Muslim employees whose name was Sofiyan Shahid Ali. They also abused him. They hit him in the back and stomach,” said Mishra.
An FIR was registered against Akshata Tendulkar, the BJP president of the Mahim constituency, and eight others on the basis of his complaint. ThePrint has seen a copy of the FIR.
Police said a case has been registered at the Shivaji Park police station against the nine people under sections 189(2) (unlawful assembly), 191(2) (rioting), 351(2) (criminal intimidation), 352 (intentional insult to provoke a breach of peace) of the Bharatiya Nyaya Sanhita and other relevant sections of the law.
“We have already sent notices to the accused. No one is arrested as of now,” DCP (Zone 5) Ganesh Gawade told ThePrint.
ThePrint also reached Tendulkar for comment via calls. This report will be updated if and when a response is received.
She has, however, written a Facebook post in which she has accused Mishra of “lying” and trying to protect Sofiyan.
Dadar incident
Saurabh Mishra sells towels on his cart in Mumbai’s Dadar market area. In total, six people work with him. More than half of them are Muslim, he said, adding Sofiyan had been with him for the past six months.
According to Mishra, Sofiyan is a native of Uttar Pradesh and lives in Mumbai to earn his livelihood. Mishra said he had enquired about him before hiring him.
In the FIR, Mishra says after the Brihanmumbai Municipal Corporation started taking action on illegal hawkers, he stopped moving around with his cart and used to place his cart at a fixed place between 10.30 am to 10.30 pm.
He alleged he and his employees were at the spot with his cart on 24 April when Akshata Tendulkar along with a crowd of 50-60 people came to the Dadar market around 4 pm.
“When they came, they started asking whether there were any Rohingya Muslim in the area. I did not have any Rohingya. Sofiyan is a native of Uttar Pradesh. When they learnt that Sofiyan was working with me, they started assaulting him,” Mishra said.
According to Mishra, they started checking Sofiyan’s Aadhar card and told him to not put up any business in the area.
According to the FIR, when Sofiyan said he is merely an employee, Tendulkar allegedly told Mishra, “Do you not understand anything? You are siding with Muslims. Because of you, incidents of violence and riots are growing.”
Mishra later said they threatened him to not hire any Muslims in future. He said that after this incident, Sofiyan has not returned to work and says he does not intend to do so either. Mishra was also later beaten up while trying to save his employee.
“He (Sofiyan) was a decent man, I could have understood if he was indeed a Rohingya Bangladeshi but he wasn’t. He was hit badly in the stomach, back, face, everywhere,” said Mishra.
On her Facebook page, Tendulkar however, claimed that Mishra is lying and trying to protect Sofiyan. “You can lie however much you want, whatever you want to blame it on us or threaten us, we will not be sacred,” she wrote.
(Edited by Ajeet Tiwari)
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