Hindu temple’s caretaker beats Muslim boy for drinking water from temple

A 14-year-old Muslim boy in India was beaten up for drinking water from a temple.

The incident of the temple caretaker beating a child in India’s Ghaziabad gained public attention after a video of the incident surfaced online.

As per reports, the 23-year-old temple caretaker, Shringi Nandan Yadav, beat the boy who went in to drink water.

The video showed the caretaker kicking and punching the boy after he asked the boy’s and his father’s name. On revealing his name and his father’s name, Yadav started beating the boy. The identity of the boy’s father is being withheld as per law to protect the child. The child’s father is daily wage labour.

“My son stopped to drink water from a tap located inside the temple as he was thirsty. He was beaten up after they asked about his identity. He suffered a head injury. He generally doesn’t venture inside the temple but this time he told me he was just very thirsty. I have asked him not to go there in the future.”

The temple authorities say they had banned the entry of non-Hindus inside the temple. Another caretaker of the temple, Yati Narsimhanand Saraswati accused that the boy was beaten for spitting inside the temple, implying that the abuse was justified.

“There are several taps outside the temple from where people drink water. Our caretakers caught the boy spitting inside the temple. They have been arrested and we will seek to legal recourse to get them bail.”

Ghaziabad police arrested Shringi Nandan Yadav and another caretaker, Shivanand Saraswati, who recorded the incident.