Two Muslim men were publicly paraded and humiliated through the streets of Sanjauli in Shimla by members of the Devbhoomi Sangharsh Samiti, a VHP-affiliated Hindu outfit, on Saturday, June 6, in a brazen act of mob vigilantism over alleging “love jihad”. However, the duo had nothing to do with the original complaint.
“Love Jihad” is an unsubstantiated, right-wing conspiracy theory that alleges a calculated plot by Muslim men to lure, woo, and convert Hindu women into Islam.
A video of the incident went viral on social media, showing the two UP residents being dragged through the market, humiliated in full public view, with CCTV cameras at their shop broken to destroy evidence. Police confirmed that neither man was named in any complaint or statement by the victim or her family.
What actually happened
The incident was set off after a 16-year-old girl’s family filed a POCSO complaint against Ubaid, 22, a UP native running a tailor shop in Sanjauli, accusing him of calling her to his shop and misbehaving with her.
Police arrested Ubaid and registered a case under Section 8 and 21 of the POCSO Act and Section 75 of the BNS. But Samiti co-convenors Madan Thakur and Vijay Sharma refused to wait for the law, they went to a separate shop, picked out two entirely unconnected Muslim men and paraded them through the locality as a public spectacle.
Both were subsequently arrested. On Sunday, June 7, Samiti supporters blocked the Sanjauli-Shimla road demanding their release, and in a telling sign of the pressure tactics at play, the victim herself was brought out to demand the duo be freed. Police warned of strict legal action against those spreading misinformation.
Uninvolved Muslims dragged in to push ‘jihad’ agenda
The Samiti exploited the complaint cynically, dragging uninvolved Muslims into the frame purely to fuel their running narrative of ‘love jihad’ and Muslim criminality. It is a pattern the outfit has deployed repeatedly.
The same Thakur and Sharma were arrested in November 2025 for blocking Muslim worshippers from entering Sanjauli mosque, questioning their citizenship and preventing Friday prayers.
The outfit had also conducted a ‘Shastra Puja’, a ritual worship of weapons, at the mosque site, openly threatening to physically bar Muslims from praying.
It has held statewide protests across all 12 district headquarters in Himachal Pradesh demanding mosque demolitions and the abolition of the Waqf Board.
