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It was a warm summer morning in the quiet border village of Banda, nestled in Maharashtra’s Sawantwadi taluka of Sindhudurg district, near the Goa border. At a small flower stall in the bustling Bazaar Peth market, 38-year-old Aftab Shaikh and his mother, Fahmida, were arranging garlands and flowers for the day’s temple visitors.
Aftab, battling diabetes and hypertension, sat beside his mother when a local Maulana happened to pass by. Out of a mother’s desperation and faith, Fahmida called him over and asked for “Dua ka paani,” a simple Islamic ritual where one prays over water for healing and blessings.
The Maulana obliged, took a Rs 10 bottle of water, recited verses from the Quran, gently blew over it, and handed it to Aftab. As he drank the water, two men from a local fringe group called Hindu Manch stood watching from a distance.
Moments later, they walked up to the shop and demanded to know what the Maulana had been doing there. Aftab patiently explained that it was simply a religious ritual; the Maulana had prayed over a bottle of water, blew over it and given it to him, which he drank with the belief that it would cure his sickness. But the men refused to believe him. Instead, they accused Aftab of pouring the same water, which they claimed the Maulana had ‘spat into’, over the garlands and flowers that temple devotees bought from his stall.
Within hours, rumours were spread by the members of Hindu Manch, accusing Aftab of pouring water with spit over the garlands meant for temple devotees. By evening, a mob had gathered. They surrounded Aftab’s tiny shop, hurled abuses, and forced him to shut it down. They threatened to destroy it and told him that they would not let him or his family do any business in Banda.
What followed were months of despair. Aftab, his brother Abdul, and their family ran from the police station to the gram panchayat and from the superintendent’s office to the collectorate, pleading to be allowed to reopen their shop. But no one resolved their problem. The business remained closed as their lives shrank under fear and poverty.
On October 28, after five months of humiliation, hopelessness and religious discrimination, Aftab recorded a video detailing his harassment and died by suicide. Even then, his grieving family had to wait five days before the police finally registered an FIR against the perpetrators, that too on court directions.
This is the story of a poor Muslim family driven to ruin, victims of hate, abandoned by the system, in a country that promises equality and justice under its Constitution.
Speaking to Newslaundry, Aftab’s elder brother, Abdul Razzak, shared the family’s ordeal. “Our family has been selling flowers and garlands in Banda for over 50-60 years. Templegoers have always bought flowers from us. We also sell toys at nearly 35 temple fairs every year in Maharashtra and Goa, in areas close to our district. For the last 17 years, we have been running this flower shop in Bazaar Peth. We have always ensured that our garlands are clean and fresh because people use them for worship. We would never allow anything impure to touch them.”
Abdul recounted that hours after the Maulana left, a mob of Hindu Manch cadres arrived at the shop. They were accompanied by a few members of the gram panchayat and police officials.
“A nearby shopkeeper called to tell me that a crowd had gathered and was threatening my brother. I rushed there and tried to explain that the Maulana had only blown over the water, not spat into it, and that Aftab had simply drunk it. Both my brother and I pleaded with them to listen, but they refused. They kept saying that whether he spat or blew, the water was tainted and had been poured on flowers, and that they wouldn’t let us run the shop again,” Abdul recounted.
When the brothers asked for proof of the allegations, the mob had none. “They threatened to demolish our shop if we tried to reopen. They then forced us to remove the garlands and shut down the stall. A panchayat member told us that they would hold a meeting to decide our fate, and until then, we couldn’t reopen. Since that day, our shop has remained closed, and our only source of income is gone.”
A month later, the family submitted an application to the gram panchayat to reopen the shop but to no avail. A police complaint, too, did not help. The copies of applications to the Gram Panchayat and the Banda police station are available with Newslaundry.
“Finally, I called a relative in Mumbai who’s a police officer. He spoke to one of his batchmates recently posted in Banda, and only after his intervention did the police arrange a meeting. My mother and I went there, but around 15-20 members of the Hindu Manch were present. We begged them to let us reopen the shop, but they refused. They said they wouldn’t just lock our flower shop forever; they wouldn’t let us run any kind of business in Banda.
“They told us they would only allow our mother to sell coconuts on the roadside. When my mother explained that selling coconuts like that wouldn’t even earn a rupee or two per piece, they told us to leave Banda and do business elsewhere. The meeting ended without any resolution. We went home with nothing but despair.”
As festival after festival passed, the family was not allowed to sell anything. They even had to forego the Ganapati festival, which is normally the biggest draw of the year.
The Hindu Manch members also threatened the family not to sell toys in any temple fair, not just in their hometowns, but anywhere else in the nearby areas.
“Every year, from November to January, temple fairs are held across Maharashtra and Goa, in areas near our district. We usually participate in around 35 jatras during these three months. But nothing this time,” says Abdul.
Abdul says that’s when his brother completely lost hope.
“We are a family of ten, my parents, my wife and two children, my brother, his wife, and their two children. We haven’t even been able to pay our children’s school fees. My father suffers from kidney disease and needs dialysis every month, which costs nearly Rs 20,000. My brother was diabetic and needed his medicines too.”
Abdul tried selling flowers at the nearby Shirala village but could hardly make Rs 1,650 in profit a month. ‘How can a family of ten survive on that? Living on borrowed money and begging for help to survive had started crushing our family mentally and morally.”
Towards the end of last month, the family heard a jatra would be held on November 2, beginning the fair season. They thought this might allow them to resume work, since they would be selling toys instead of flowers, and no one would object.
On October 28, a hopeful Aftab arranged a loan and told the family he would go to Belagavi the next day to buy toys for the jatra. He even asked his children to stay home from school so they could come along, as he wanted to buy them some clothes too.
“As he was returning in the night with the money he borrowed, he ran into a few members of the Hindu Manch. They warned him against putting up the stall and said that if he dared to do so, they would burn it down. That threat was the final blow.”
Fahmida, 58, Aftab’s mother, told Newslaundry with a sadness in her voice, “He came home, sat beside me and started crying. He said those men from the Hindu Manch had threatened him again. I tried to console him and told him not to worry, that I would go with him to the jatra and face whatever came our way. But our whole family had been living under harassment and humiliation for months. My son had lost all hope.”
She further said, “My son was a kind, simple man. I still can’t understand why anyone would hate him so much. If I had even the slightest clue that asking for dua ka paani, a simple act of faith, would bring such disaster, I would never have asked the Maulana. My son didn’t die by suicide. He was driven to death by the hate, mental torture, and cruelty of those Hindu Manch people. They didn’t just destroy his spirit; they murdered him with their hatred.”
“We have been in this business for decades. We know that people use our flowers in temples for worship, and we have always respected that. We would never do anything to disrespect another faith. But those people from Hindu Manch twisted the story, spread lies, and targeted our family,” she said.
On the intervening night of October 28th-29th, at around 4 am, Aftab made a video on his phone detailing his ordeal and the harassment meted out to him by the members of Hindu Manch. He stated in the videos that they are not letting him do any work, because of which he and his family are suffering, and that's why he is killing himself.
Sarfaraz Naik, a local social worker, said, “Aftab first tried to end his life by taking a heavy dose of insulin. But when that didn’t work, he hanged himself from the ceiling fan. Some of his family members heard noises from his room and rushed there. His brother looked through the window and saw him hanging. He immediately broke open the door and brought him down.
“The family and neighbours rushed him to a local doctor’s house in Deulwadi. Aftab was struggling to breathe, so the doctor advised them to take him to the hospital immediately. They first took him to Banda Civil Hospital, but the doctors there referred him to the Sawantwadi Civil Hospital because his condition was deteriorating.
“At Sawantwadi, the doctors suggested shifting him to Bambolim in Goa for better treatment. But as they shifted him into the ambulance, he began vomiting and died there, before they could even start the journey.”
Naik further said, “The next morning, police called Aftab’s family members to the station and began recording their statements. At that point, no one knew about the video Aftab had recorded before taking his life. Around 12:30 p.m., his young son, while scrolling through his father’s phone, found the video and showed it to Abdul. That’s when the family realised Aftab had left behind a suicide video naming the people responsible for his harassment.”
The family immediately approached the police and showed them the video, requesting that an FIR be registered against the members of the Hindu Manch named in it. But the police refused. By then, relatives, neighbours, and local residents had gathered outside the police station. The family declared they would not perform Aftab’s last rites until the police registered the FIR.
In turn, top police officials visited the police station, and nearly 200 policemen were deployed, blocking family members and relatives from entering the station. For five days, Aftab’s body remained without last rites, as the family fought to get the case registered. It was only after they filed a petition in court that the police finally lodged the FIR.
Abdul added, “The police just weren’t ready to file the FIR. We even submitted an online complaint through the citizen portal and personally met the Superintendent of Police and the District Collector, but no one helped. Finally, on November 1, we filed a petition in the Kolhapur circuit bench of the Bombay High Court, naming the police and district authorities as respondents and requesting the court to order an FIR against the accused.
It was only after this petition that the police finally registered the FIR on the intervening night of November 2 and 3 against the members of the Hindu Manch. When we were being harassed for months due to religious hatred, the police, panchayat, or the district authorities did not come to our aid. Even after my brother’s death, they refused to act. They only filed the FIR when the court forced them to. Without that petition, justice would have been denied to us completely.” (Copy of petition and FIR available with Newslaundry)
The FIR names Nilesh Patekar, Baba Kanekar, Guru Kalyankar, Hemant Dabholkar, and Jay Patekar, all members of the Hindu Manch. However, before the police could arrest them, they applied for interim anticipatory bail and were released.
District Collector of Sindhudurg, Trupti Dhodmise, told TNM, “I have been posted here recently, so I am not aware of the previous complaints, but yes, police authorities did file the FIR and booked the accused persons responsible for harassing and troubling him.”
When asked why the police took five days to file the FIR, she said, “They were actually investigating the reasons, which took time, and then filed the FIR.”
Newslaundry has reached out to Mohan Dahikar, Superintendent of Police, Sindhudurg, and Hindu Manch, but they have not responded to our queries. Their replies will be added to the story once they respond.