A post was shared on Twitter claiming to reveal the 'real Islamophobia' in the capital city, Delhi. Md Asif Khan shared a picture along with the caption, "This is the hate crime and sheer Islamophobia. This man was beaten up and kicked at Saket Metro Station Delhi when some people asked his name and he replied Abdul Zain Khan."

The same claim was made by journalist Prashan Kanojia, where he wrote" Abdul Zain Khan was attacked by 4 locals at Saket Metro Station when told them a Muslim name. This has been alleged by the victim's sister. Victim's family is at Saket Police Station, one of the 4 accused has been detained."

At the time of writing this article, this tweet has been reshared more than 450 times. 

A similar claim was made by filmmaker Syed Ahmad Afzal, "That’s my cousin. He was beaten and kicked at Saket Metro Station just because he was asked his name and he replied Abdul Zain Khan. Please tell me that the poison of hatred sowed by the rulers of this country shall not reach me. It has reached. And it’ll reach you next."

The truth behind the claim

As the name of the victim is mentioned in the tweet, we ran a keyword search and found a report about the incident that took place on 3rd January. 

According to the reports of the Times of India and Business Standard, the victim was with his two friends Rajesh and Tarun, in his car at Prem Singh Parking. They were about to leave the place when three men came near his car and started knocking at the windowpane of the car and hurled abuses. According to the complaint,  the accused were drunk and they had quarreled over the parking issue.

An excerpt of the article gives details about the sections under which the case against the is filed, which reads as" a case under section 341 (punishment for wrongful restraint), 323 (punishment for voluntarily causing hurt), 506 (punishment for criminal intimidation) and 34 (criminal act with common intention) of the IPC has been registered at Saket police station." 

In conclusion, the claim that Abdul Zain Khan was beaten up by some people due to his religion is completely false and misleading since two other Hindu friends were also beaten. The quarrel between Abdul and his two friends, and the accused took place over a parking spot as the accused were drunk.