A young mentally-challenged Muslim man was brutally beaten to death by a group of Hindu extremists on Tuesday for allegedly “stealing food from a temple” in India’s capital New Delhi.
Isar Mohammad, 26, was killed after being tortured, assaulted, and tied to a pole as he was accused of stealing some prasad (food offerings) and INR20 from a pile of offerings dedicated to Hindu gods at a temporary installation during the Ganesh Chaturthi celebration.
In a disturbing video of the incident that has been circulating the web, five men can be seen assaulting Isar as he begs them to stop.
Due to his mental impairment, Muhammad was unable to converse with the temple’s administrators, according to the police.
Additionally, Muhammad’s family stated that he had been tortured for hours and left to die on the street as they had found him on the street with wounds all over his body, The Independent reported.
He died shortly after being brought home by a neighbour.
“He was cold like a dead body when he was brought back to our house. Seeing him like that, I too died with him,” his sister Umrana Mohammad said.
Following the brutal incident, seven individuals have been detained on charges of murder in connection with the incident.
However, a police official on the condition of anonymity said that there was no religious motivation for the crime, The Quint reported.
“The accused claimed that around 5am, they caught Isar lurking around the area and thought that he was a thief,” Joy N Tirkey, a top police official, was quoted as saying by The Indian Express newspaper.
“They asked him questions but he was unable to reply properly since he was mentally challenged. They then tied him to an electric pole and thrashed him,” said the police official.
A post-mortem report revealed blunt-force injuries to his head, back, arms, and legs, with “shock and haemorrhage” as the cause of death.
