AGRA: Two Muslim brothers, who run a roadside food stall in Mathura — named Srinath Dosa Corner — were allegedly harassed and their eatery vandalised by members of a local right-wing outfit who objected to its Hindu name. The incident has forced the duo to rename the eatery ‘American Dosa Corner’.
On Saturday, one person was arrested in connection with the incident, said superintendent of police (city) M P Singh. The accused was identified as Srikant Sharma, a member of International Hindu Parishad, a hitherto unknown organisation. “The matter is being investigated and strict action will be taken against the accused,” the SP said.
Mathura police has registered an FIR against unidentified people under section 506 (criminal intimidation) and 427 (mischief) of the IPC at Kotwali police station.
The brothers, Irfan and Aabid (who have only been identified with their first names), said they have been running the stall for the past five years under the same name without incident. "We recently sold it off to a person called Rahul Thakur, but we manage it," said Aabid, adding that the stall’s name has now been changed to "American Dosa Corner".
The incident took place on August 18 and soon after, a video of it went viral on social media. In the two-minute video, a person can be seen asking Aabid, who was attending to customers at the time, why his stall carried a Hindu name. The man can be heard threatening, "Remove the name now. Hindus will not eat at the stall if they know your true identity." The banner of the stall was also torn away later.
City president of International Hindu Parishad, Dev Sharma, said the organisation objected to the stall as "sentiments of Hindus were hurt by misuse of Lord Krishna’s name, Srinath."
"They (Muslims) should not be using a Hindu name to earn money. Mathura is a religious town and such things can hurt sentiments of the community", said Dev Sharma.
Last week, a bangle seller from UP, Tasleem Ali, was beaten up in Indore for using a "fake name" to sell his goods in a Hindu-dominated area. He was also slapped with the Pocso Act for allegedly making advances on a 13-year-old girl and arrested by police.
Earlier, in Muzaffarnagar, some activists from Kranti Sena, had appealed to people to not allow Muslim men to apply mehndi on the hands of Hindu women ahead of Teej festival alleging that they "indulged in love jihad".
