On April 22, an Indian man, Ghanshyam Chaturvedi, was arrested in the Indian state of Maharashtra, after a video of him went viral. The 51-year-old man had refused to accept groceries that he had ordered, after the delivery person turned out to be a Muslim. In a video that went viral, he said that he had asked for a Hindu delivery person. The video was taken by the delivery person and shared on Twitter.
The incident took place on Tuesday evening, in Thane district of the state, when Muslim delivery boy Barkat Uthman Patel took grocery items that needed to be delivered to an apartment complex due to the nationwide COVID-19 lockdown.
Patel had taken all the precautions against Covid-19, as he was wearing the personal protective equipment such as mask and gloves. The customer and his wife came down to the gate to collect the grocery items.
Trouble started when Chaturvedi asked the delivery man his name as his wife was going through the list of items that they were ordered. When he learnt that the man was a Muslim, he asked his wife to return the grocery items.
Patel was shocked by Chaturvedi’s behaviour and recorded the entire conversation on his cellphone. He later filed an FIR in Kashimira police station.
Many tweeps shared the video saying there is widespread hatred and Islamophobia in India these days. Tweep @humaidsid posted: “The hatred is too much …”
And, @urooj_md pointed out: “He said, ‘before placing my order, I had said I want a Hindu to deliver it’.”
In another video posted by tweep Shahnawaz Ansari, Patel is seen explaining what had happened.
Reportedly, in the FIR, Patel told the police: “I risked my life to deliver all the essential items. But the man’s (Chaturvedi) behaviour was shocking and tragic, as he was focusing on my religion amid these hard times.”
Sanjay Hajare, senior inspector, Kashimira police station, said that the accused was found at the address where Patel was to deliver the groceries and identified as the man recorded in the video.
In India, it is illegal to discriminate on the basis of religion. The police booked Gajanan Chaturvedi under the Indian Penal Code section 295 (a) for committing a deliberate or malicious act with the intention of outraging Patel’s religious feelings and beliefs.
The accused was produced before the Thane sessions court on Wednesday and released on bail of Rs 15,000 personal surety, said Sanjay Hazare, senior police inspector, Kashimira police station, under whose jurisdiction Mira Road falls, according to Indian news reports.
