Six Muslim men have been arrested in Bihar’s Vaishali district for posing as Hindu Sadhus and collecting alms by showing a Nandi bull. All accused have been apprehended near Kadamghat in Hajipur city. Locals have asked authorities to investigate if these people were merely begging or were part of a larger conspiracy.

Local SP Ambrish Rahul has informed that locals saw these six men, who were dressed in saffron robes. These people were travelling in a passenger train and asking people for alms at Chatar railway halt. Their behavior made the people suspicious and soon a crowd gathered and accosted them. One of the six men managed to escape while the rest five were held by the crowd until the police came and took them into custody.

Later, the one man who got away was also arrested. The accused have been identified as Syed Ali (40 years, father- Maiku Ahmed), Hasan (30 years, father- Asghar), Karim Ahmed (38 years, father-Sakur Ahmed), Haleem Ahmed (35 Years, Father- Sakur Ahmed), Subrati (30 Years, Father- Abu Mohammad), and Mehboob (32 years, father- Muner alias W). During interrogation, it was discovered that all of them hail from the Bahraich district of Uttar Pradesh.

The SP also stated that “During their questioning, they revealed they had hired a room in Gaya where they lived. They claimed several families from their village were into begging in the guise of sadhus. Some of them had multiple Aadhaar cards on different names.” Police has also searched their room and seized various items, and it has emerged that few of them have a criminal history as well.

According to the Police, such cases have been rising in recent times. On July 25 last year, six Muslim men were captured by locals in the same Hajipur area of Vaishali; they were also collecting alms outside a temple while dressed as sadhus. During their interrogation, police found they were also from the Bahraich district of Uttar Pradesh.

Such crimes are often taken lightly by the Indian State and its judiciary, and it wouldn’t come as a surprise if these criminals are soon given bail or let off with a light slap on the wrist. But such actions do great harm to Hindu society and our Dharma, by lowering people’s trust in sadhus and Hindu religious leaders in general. They feed into the negative stereotype around sadhus and saffron-clad ascetics created by our Hinduphobic elites and Bollywood movies.

That ordinary Muslims living in the hinterland even dared to do something like this shows the reality of the current secular Republic. It is Hindus who are under attack from all sides, and the so-called minorities have become so radicalized and emboldened that they have no fear in directly attacking core symbols of Hindu Dharma and impersonating our holy men.

Hindu society, and especially the sadhu-sant samaj & established religious institutions – akharas, mathas, sabhas, need to come out in strong protest against such desecration of holy saffron robes which represent one of the highest ideals of Dharma i.e. sannyas. Anyone, Muslim or Hindu, found posing as a sadhu to defraud people should be dealt with so severely that no one dare repeat such crimes.