Communal tensions erupted in Telangana’s Asifabad district on Wednesday amid protests over the alleged sexual assault of a 45-year-old woman from the ST Gond community in Devuguda village. The accused, auto-rickshaw driver Sheikh Makhdhoom, allegedly attempted to sexually assault the woman on August 31. When she raised an alarm, he beat her with a stick and left her unconscious by the roadside, intending to kill her.
On September 1, the woman’s younger brother filed a complaint at Sirpur U Police Station, leading to a case being registered under the SC/ST Act for attempted rape and murder. DSP Sadayya Panthati took charge of the investigation and arrested the accused driver on Tuesday.
In Jainoor town, Asifabad district, communal tensions escalated as an enraged mob attacked and set fire to commercial establishments. According to Telangana Today, around 5,000 people gathered in Jainoor as part of a bandh called by various tribal organizations condemning the crime. The mob set commercial buildings ablaze and pelted stones at religious structures. Tribal rights organizations also staged a rasta roko in Jainoor, demanding the death penalty for the accused.
AIMIM Chief Asaduddin Owaisi raised concerns over the escalating violence and wrote to the Telangana DGP about the situation. He urged for peace, emphasizing that no one should be allowed to take the law into their own hands. On X, he stated that the Telangana DGP assured him that the situation is being monitored, additional forces are being deployed, and action will be taken against those who break the law.
The BJP also criticized the Revanth Reddy-led Congress government in Telangana, accusing it of favouring the accused due to his minority status. In a post on X, Telangana BJP claimed, “Sheikh Makhdhoom was the rapist who attacked a tribal woman and tried to kill her to avoid legal consequences. There’s an attempt to frame this as an accident. This is a reflection of Congress’s politics of sympathy for minorities and the shameless rule under Revanth Sarkar.”
The incident has, however, put the Jai Meem-Jai Bhim trope— long peddled by ‘secular’ parties such as Congress, which intended to carve out a new vote bank—consisting of Muslims and some sections of the Hindu society. The recent attempt by Rahul Gandhi to tether every conversation to caste equations and caste identity was one such effort to hack away at the consolidation of the Hindu society, which has been the primary cause of Congress’ undoing in the last 3 Lok Sabha elections.
