Delhi Student Harassed, Told ‘You’re Muslim, We Won’t Face Action’

An ex-student of Jamia Milia Islamia was assaulted and threatened by 4 people who were allegedly drunk.

Jamia Millia Islamia University, New Delhi

(Photo Courtesy: Facebook/Jamia Millia Islamia)

Twenty-four-year-old Daud Arif, a Jamia Millia Islamia graduate, was on Wednesday, 15 August, allegedly assaulted and threatened by 4 men outside his house in New Delhi's Sarai Jullena.

When the Independence Day celebrations grew too loud outside his house, Arif requested his landlord to intervene. “You’re a Muslim. Even if we do something to your life, we will escape unscathed,” shouted one of the 4 men, according to Arif.

“It was a holiday so there were people celebrating Independence Day right under my house. Five to six men were playing loud music outside my house, and it was only around 8 PM that I asked my landlord to intervene. When I stepped out of my house to approach him, I saw someone had urinated on my door and in front of my house,” Arif told The Quint.

Daud Arif narrated the incident in a Facebook post.

‘I Objected to The Men Urinating In Front of My Room’

Arif added, “I went to my landlord and told him that I did not object to any celebration but only to someone urinating in front of my room. I was attacked when my landlord tried to tell this to the men playing the music.”

My landlord and I realised that all of them were drunk. They slapped my landlord and told me that I am a Muslim, so if they try and do something to me, nothing will ever happen to them. I was told this on my country’s Independence Day.

Daud Arif

The 24-year-old graduated from Jamia, in mass communication, earlier this year.

Arif then approached the police and called them at 9:42 PM, only to get no help for an hour. He then went to New Friends Colony Police station to lodge a complaint but was advised against filing an FIR.

“The police told me that the process will be lengthy as I do not have a formal rent agreement. They told me filing a legal complaint will consume my time but if I want, I can file,” he said.

‘My Day to Face Hate Crime Had Come Too’

“I read about hate crimes against Muslims in the country and when this happened to me yesterday, I realised, my day to face a hate crime had come too,” Arif said.

While Arif says that the men who assaulted him and threatened to kill him were known to his landlord, the landlord has denied the claim.

“We were inside the house and not aware of the altercation that took place upstairs. We told Arif that he should not be scared of anyone. We offered him protection from anyone who tried to harm him. He can stay at this place for as long as he wishes to,” Arif’s landlord Babli told The Quint.

“How many houses will he change if these kind of things happen to him? We are here to support him and save him,” Babli said.