New Delhi: A Muslim shopkeeper in Uttar Pradesh’s Bulandshahr was detained by the police on Tuesday for selling shoes embossed with the word ‘Thakur’ on the sole with the authorities accusing him of inciting communal hatred.
Thakur is a common Hindu name, normally associated with a so-called ‘upper’ caste.
The shopkeeper, Nasir, was booked after a Sangh parivar activist objected to shoes being branded in this manner.
Vishal Chauhan, coordinator of the Bajrang Dal in Gulaothi town of Bulandshahr, lodged a complaint against the shopkeeper. He told the media, “We went to his shop and handed him over to the police.”
Nasir was booked under Sections 153A (Promoting disharmony, enmity or feelings of hatred between different groups), 323 (Punishment for voluntarily causing hurt) and 504 (Intentional insult with intent to provoke breach of the peace) of the Indian Penal Code.
Nasir can be seen telling the police in a video, which has been now widely shared on social media, that the word was embossed by the manufacturer of the shoes and that he has nothing to do with it.
The Bulandshahr police later let off the shopkeeper after they found no evidence that he was “promoting disharmony” during their investigation.
Meanwhile, the owner of Thakur Footwear Company, Narendra Trilokani told The Wire on Wednesday morning that he had heard nothing so far from the police in connection with the incident. The wholesale shoe manufacturing firm was started by Trilokani’s grandfather, Thakur Das Trilokani, and was named after him.
Screenshot from Thakur Footwear Company’s website showing the word “Thakur” printed on the footwear.
The company, which is more than 60 years old, has been selling shoes with the name ‘Thakur’ embossed on them since its inception and has also seen a boom in its market with an online store. Based in Uttar Pradesh’s Agra, the company has been selling footwear across the country.
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Trilokani told The Wire that more than 10,000 shoes are produced every month, adding that profit margins are also “quite good”.
The company’s products are available on multiple online shopping platforms, including Amazon, Flipkart, Snapdeal, Myntra, Paytm and Shopclues.
The police, however, have not questioned the company yet, even though their details are publicly available on their website – a phone number as well as the address of the company’s head office.
“Our firm is registered, we have a copyright for the name also. But if the police come after us, we have our lawyers to fight our cause. The ‘Thakur’ name is associated with my grandfather and we will not change it for some politics,” asserted Trilokani.
Santosh Kumar, senior superintendent of police of Bulandshahr, told The Wire, “The shopkeeper who was selling the shoes got into a fight with some customers who objected to the sale of shoes with a Hindu caste name on it. They said it was objectionable and filed a complaint against him. We got both parties to the police station and upon investigation, we found that the charges against him were not true and so we let him go. He hadn’t intentionally done this.”
The police official further added that the manufacturer of the shoes that Nasir was selling could not be traced.
When asked if any action would be taken against Thakur Footwear Company, Kumar said that if anybody’s “sentiments are hurt by those, the police will look into it. But in Nasir’s case, it was important to investigate as both parties were from different communities [religions] and could have resulted in something ugly”.