Police arrest BJP worker who attacked Muslim driver for refusing ‘Jai Sri Ram’
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Reports from Agra say that a week after a 57-year-old Muslim taxi driver was harassed and allegedly attacked for refusing to chant “Jai Shri Ram,” the prime accused, Rohit Thakur, has now been taken into custody.
The incident has been cited as part of a wider pattern in which Muslims in different regions are being intimidated and pressured to repeat the Hindutva slogan. In this case, a widely circulated video showed Thakur confronting an elderly man identified as Raheesh Khan and insisting he chant the phrase. When Khan asked him to stop interfering, Thakur was heard warning that Khan would be forced to say it “in two or three days.”
Thakur had uploaded the video on his Facebook page with the caption, “These are the real terrorists”.
Media reports quoting Khan say that Thakur and another man accompanying him physically assaulted him, allegedly pulling his beard and slapping him after he refused to chant the slogan.
Alt News reported that Khan, who has been driving taxis for nearly four decades, had recently purchased his own car on loan. On the day of the incident, he had transported tourists from Agra Cantt station to the Taj Mahal Metro parking area, where Thakur and another individual approached him, Maktoob Media reported.
According to journalist Madan Mohan Soni, who covers Uttar Pradesh, Agra Police arrested Thakur on December 2.
Thakur’s Facebook profile shows him openly supporting the BJP and Prime Minister Narendra Modi. In another video posted after the assault, he can be heard using Islamophobic language while filming Muslim visitors at the Red Fort. He is also seen stopping a man and compelling him to say “Jai Shri Ram” in a similar fashion.
His page contains several such clips, including one from November 24 in which he repeats the right-wing claim that the Taj Mahal is actually “Tejo Mahalay” while trying to pull a Muslim bystander into his video frame as the man walks away.
