Mohd Deepak's heroism comes at a cost

The sleepy town of Kotdwar, a little over 100 kilometre from Dehradun, has been in the news since 26 January, when two Hindu men confronted a Bajrang Dal gang for harassing a Muslim shopkeeper.

In recent years, the harassment of Muslims in Uttarakhand has become an everyday occurrence. Mobs patronised by politicians rule the streets and even the police do not come in their way. Resistance to ‘Hindutva’ goons was unthinkable until Deepak Kashyap and his friend Vijay Rawat stood up for Wakeel Ahmed. Born in Kotdwar, seventy-five-year-old Ahmed owns ‘Baba Dresses’, a garment shop that has been selling cloth for school uniforms for over four decades.

But how dare a Muslim-owned outlet flaunt the word ‘Baba’! The Bajrangis wanted the shop name to be changed and changed immediately. When Ahmed, who suffers from Parkinson’s, begged for time, they abused and pushed him around. That’s when Deepak and Vijay, who were chatting with friends nearby, intervened. They protested against their foul language and maltreatment. A heated exchange followed.

It’s not clear who shot a short video of the altercation and shared it on social media. The clip went viral for an unusual reason — when the mob asked Kashyap his name, he looked them in the eye and replied, “My name is Mohammad Deepak”.

Speaking to this correspondent, Deepak said though he is a Hindu, he believes in insaaniyat (humanity). “No religion propagates hate for another!”

A tall, muscular man, the 40-something gym-owner was clearly angry. “I have lived in Kotdwar all my life, everybody here knows me by name. So, when they asked for my name, I realised they were outsiders,” he says. Since they had no other intention but to harass a Muslim shopkeeper, identifying himself as a fellow Muslim seemed to be the right thing to do.

Deepak and Ahmed were no more than nodding acquaintances. Whenever he visited friends who have shops in the neighbourhood, he would greet the old man out of common courtesy. Raised by a single mother who sold tea for a living, it was part of his upbringing to be respectful to elders and do the right thing, he says.

After the incident on 26 January, they met again on 4 February. The trembling old man embraced Deepak, whose defiance had given him strength, he said, and the hope that he was not alone in his hometown.

Both have since paid the price for their pushback. Customers have dwindled at Ahmed’s shop and Deepak’s gym stayed closed for over a week. On 31 January, a far larger mob arrived in Kotdwar in SUVs from Dehradun. They converged outside his gym and residence. They abused him, his wife and mother, while he watched helplessly.

Remembering their abuses, this strong man breaks down. He has suffered losses, his mother is afraid, his wife is traumatised. The police are far from sympathetic and a large section of fellow Hindus in the town blame him for the fracas and for drawing attention to Kotdwar.

The leader of the mob is a known face, a resident of Haridwar often used by the ruling party to foment trouble. The Bajrang Dal has warned Deepak that he will pay dearly for his defiance. The police have filed an FIR against him under Sections 115(2) (voluntarily causing hurt), 191(1) (rioting), 351(2) (criminal intimidation), 352 (breach of peace). The FIR has been filed on the complaint of a Kamal Pal, who alleged that Deepak, Vijay and their friends abused and attacked the miscreants, though the videos show the exact opposite.

The FIR that has been filed against the 30-40 ‘unknown people’ in the mob that surrounded Deepak’s house — under Sections 191(2) (rioting), 121(2) (voluntarily causing hurt), 126(2) (wrongful restraint), 196(2) (promoting enmity between different groups), 352 (breach of peace) — is unlikely to go far. Strangers to Kotdwar, most of them are known faces to the people and police of Dehradun.

The BJP government headed by Pushkar Singh Dhami has given a free hand to the Bajrang Dal and other communal groups to harass and beat up people belonging to the minority community. With just 10 months to go before another Assembly election, the government has little to show by way of good governance. Islamophobia is the only weapon Dhami possesses, which is why he has unleashed it with a vengeance.

Dehradun-based political commentator Trilochan Bhatt believes the increase in communal clashes over the last two months is a diversionary tactic to shift attention from the Ankita Bhandari rape and murder case.

Despite the government handing the inquiry to the CBI — after having resisted the demand for years — the people’s protests refuse to die down. Bhatt points out the reason for their fury — the inquiry is based on an FIR filed by Dr Anil Joshi, an environmentalist, who has no locus standi on this case.

Ankita’s parents had demanded an additional FIR to investigate the role of prominent BJP leaders in burying the case — that has not happened. The people of Uttarakhand have risen as one to support that demand, and a panchayat is likely to assemble on Sunday, 8 February.

CPI(ML) state secretary Indresh Maikhuri is also of the opinion that communal sentiments are being deliberately inflamed to distract from public demand for an investigation supervised by a Supreme Court judge.

Social worker Charu Tiwari believes that without the patronage of the government and the police, the Kotdwar incident could not have taken place. The chief minister was present in town on 31 January when the mob of rowdy outsiders reached Deepak’s doorstep. Police jeeps were following the mob, he recalls, and the local police station is only a stone’s throw from the gym. How then was the mob able to harangue Deepak and his family for nearly four hours, he asks.

The chief minister of Uttarakhand has the dubious distinction of topping the list of people delivering hate speeches in 2025. A report compiled by the Centre for the Study of Organised Hate and released by India Hate Lab attributes 71 hate speeches to Pushkar Singh Dhami. He repeatedly uses reprehensible terms like ‘land jihad’, ‘love jihad’, ‘masjid jihad’, ‘mazaar jihad’ and ‘thook jihad’, and encourages others to do the same.

Hate speech incidents in Uttarakhand went up from 65 in 2024 to 155 in 2025. Dhami is proud of his ‘achievement’. Proud of ‘protecting the state’s culture and demography’.

Meanwhile, Mohammad Deepak has had to shift his family. Despite people lauding his courage across the country, some even travelling to Kotdwar to meet him and take selfies with him, his future is uncertain.

As for Wakeel Ahmed, who knows how long he’ll be seen behind the counter at ‘Baba Dresses’.