Hyderabad: The National Crime Record Bureau (NCRB) does not distinguish between violent crime and crime instigated by religious hatred and cow-related violence, but clubs them under the category of ‘violent crime’.
It is found that in the last one decade, 288 hate crimes took place across all the states that killed 102 persons and left 788 injured.
And of the 288, 127 are in connection with cow-related violence.
Telangana state too recorded such heinous crimes triggered by religious hatred, while Delhi topped the list.
The ministry of home in 2017 informed the Parliament that it does not collect data on cow-related crimes and on incidents triggered due to religious hatred, as such cases are booked under rioting, communal tension, arson and attempt to murder or murder, and other sections of the Indian Penal Code.
So the official NCRB (crime incident report) issued by the home department will not frame a separate category for religious hate and cow-related incidents.
The fackchekers-hate crime watch team has built a database by collecting, analysing and ground verification of incidents committed each year since 2009-2010.
The team has built a database of hate crimes based on religious identity, categorised by intent, location, a political party in power and identity.
The Telangana state registered eight incidents of hate crime between 2014 and 2018, during the regime of the TRS party. There were four hate crimes between 2011-2013 during the Congress rule.
The most brutal of all was registered in Nalgonda in 2018, when a 24-year-old Dalit Christian, Perumalla Pranay, was hacked to death by assailants hired by his father-in-law in revenge for marrying his upper caste daughter.
In an incident that shocked the state, cow vigilantes attacked two Muslim youths and a pickup van driver in 2016 while they were transporting calves.
Police said that around 30 youths intercepted the vehicle and after dumping the calves, beat up the driver and the two youths who were in the vehicle.
Violence broke out over religious conversion in Karimnagar, while in Warangal, Nizamabad, Medchal and Ranga Reddy, there were cases of violence due to religious hatred. Andhra Pradesh registered no religious hate crime but two persons were attacked in cow-related violence in coastal AP during the Telugu Desam rule.
T. Pradyumma Kumar Reddy, a criminal lawyer practising in the High Court, said, “If the Central government wants, it can make simple amendments in the law and incorporate religious hatred and cow-related violence under different categories and the same can be published in the NCRB.”
The database of fackchekers shows that there has been a rise in hate violence nation-wide, especially on the pretext of ‘cow protection’ and ‘love jihad’.
Despite the numerous cases that community and human rights organisations are bringing to public notice, there is an official denial of the scale of this violence.
