Owais Lakhani
Mumbai: Mohammed “Owais” Lakhani, one of India’s most decorated mobile esports athletes, has alleged that he and his teammates are being forced to vacate their rented flat in Mumbai after their housing society told the flat’s owner that Muslim tenants were not permitted on the premises.
Lakhani, who competes in Battlegrounds Mobile India (BGMI) and has represented the country at the international level, shared the ordeal in a video posted to his YouTube channel, which quickly went viral on social media and sparked widespread outrage.
“The society where we live told the owner that Muslims are not allowed,” Lakhani said in the video, adding that all required documents, including Aadhaar cards, had been submitted. He said the society and its residents were aware of the tenants’ identities from the very beginning.
He said the previous tenants of the flat were also Muslims.
Lakhani noted that the flat’s owner had already invested significantly in the property, including setting up WiFi and other infrastructure, making the forced departure all the more difficult.
The 26-year-old has earned over USD 57,000 in prize money from 30 esports tournaments and has played for some of India’s most prominent gaming organisations, including Team SouL, Fnatic and Galaxy Racer. He currently competes under the Victores Sumus banner.
The incident has reignited debate over the deeply entrenched pattern of housing discrimination against Muslims in India’s major cities. A study conducted from 2017 to 2019 by India Housing Report, based on more than 200 interviews with house owners, brokers and tenants across fifteen neighbourhoods in Mumbai and Delhi, found that rental discrimination against Muslims was “neither localised nor episodic, but deeply systemic.”
Research has documented cases where Muslim tenants are asked to vacate flats mid-month without notice, solely on the basis of their religion. In Mumbai, housing societies have long maintained unwritten agreements not to sell or rent to Muslims, a practice that runs afoul of the Maharashtra Co-operative Societies Act and the constitutional guarantee of equality.
This post was last modified on April 27, 2026 5:50 pm