On Saturday, September 18, two unsuspecting passengers on a two-wheeler — a burqa-clad woman and a man wearing a helmet and mask — were stopped at Hosur Road in Bengaluru by a group of men. They start questioning and harassing the man and a woman for travelling together, while one of them records the incident. The Muslim men even hit the man several times. As the video started going viral, the Bengaluru police nabbed two accused on Sunday, September 19.
The incident, according to the police, took place at Hosur road near Dairy Circle in Bengaluru at 9 pm on Saturday. In the video, a man riding the bike is being hit by the person holding the camera. The man, incidentally, was wearing a tilak on his forehead (a Hindu religious marker). The assaulter verbally abuses the man for having a Muslim woman in the pillion and hits him a few times. He is heard warning the man, “If you ever dare take a burqa-clad woman as a pillion again...” He then targets the woman, saying she should be “ashamed to sit behind the man." He is heard asking the woman why she was doing “such things” wearing a burqa. Even as she tells the men that she is coming back from her office and is being dropped home, the men keep hounding them.
Another man enquires if she is married and then asks for her husband’s number. The woman is seen calling someone, explaining the situation and cutting the call. The men keep harassing the woman, forcing her to give them her husband’s number.
Finally, after the woman gives her husband’s number, the assaulter dials the number and puts him on the loudspeaker. Even as the man on the phone tells the assaulter that she is being dropped back home from the office, the latter refuses to listen, instead abuses and shames the man for sending his wife with another man. “It is because of people like you that the entire community is getting disgraced,” the assaulter can be heard saying. The assaulter then asks the woman to get off the bike and says he will get her an auto.
All the while, as the incident was unfolding on a narrow stretch of the road, the traffic was piling up and the crowd started thronging.
According to a statement by the police, the accused were traced and caught within 12 hours of the incident. Bengaluru South East Deputy Commissioner of Police (DCP) Joshi Srinath Mahadev said that the case has been registered at the Suddaguntepalya police station. Speaking to reporters, DCP Joshi said, “We have arrested the accused and we have taken up further investigation.” The police have refused to reveal further details of the charges against the men, but only stated that they have been booked under sections pertaining to assault.