‘Never thought I’d be a hate crime victim’

Kazeem Sherwani, who was thrashed and abused on a van in Noida, has moved SC

Resting on a bed at his modest house in south Delhi’s Zakir Nagar, 62-year-old Kazeem Ahmad Sherwani still trembles while recalling the incident when he was allegedly waylaid, thrashed and looted by four persons in Noida earlier this year.

“I had read about incidents of hate crimes against Muslims but never thought I would be a victim one day... They (accused) brutally thrashed me and broke my nose with a screwdriver... I still experience body pain due to the incident,” Mr. Sherwani, who runs a ration shop, told The Hindu.

On July 4, Mr. Sherwani, on his way to Aligarh to attend a nephew’s wedding, was waiting for a bus at Noida’s Sector 37 bus stand around 8 p.m. when a van, carrying four persons, stopped and offered him a lift. “I tried to get into the empty seat in the middle row but they signalled me to move to the back row where two persons were already sitting,” he said.