Chennai: A bakery owner was arrested after he sent hateful advertisement over WhatsApp of his bakery having only Jain workers and no Muslims preparing the food.
Located at Chennai’s Mahalakshmi Street in T. Nagar, the bakery is now running online to take orders. The owner of the bakery sent a spiteful advertisement to customers over social media and bragged that Muslims dint work at his store and there was only Jain staff.
He was severely criticized for communalizing the advertisement. People took to Twitter and Facebook to put him out and demanded his arrest for spreading hate in the country against people of different religious beliefs.
A user tweeted,
Their phone number is on this. Please don’t call/message and shame them. pic.twitter.com/FbnpmOpcZJ
— Dushyant 🇮🇳 (@atti_cus) May 8, 2020
Make Jain bakery in Chennai famous for their BIGOTRY.
This is against the Indian Constitution.
Anti-National Jain Bakery in Chennai pic.twitter.com/PiflueBlhR
— Syedda Shahid (@QueenOEuphrates) May 8, 2020
The advertisement is being said to be spreading Islamophobia.
The retweets and shares on social media reached all over the country within hours. This quickly went viral and forcing the police sprang into action.
The owner of “Jain Bakeries & Confectioneries” has been booked under section 295A (Deliberate and malicious acts, intended to outrage religious feelings of any class by insulting its religion or reli¬gious beliefs) and section 504 of the IPC (Intentional insult with intent to provoke breach of the peace), the police said.
The bakery owner said that he forwarded such advertisements after he went through rumors of people not accepting food prepared by Muslims. He further said that he did so “after he got several calls from customers asking as to whether any Muslim worked at his bakery.” According to him, he put up the board after he saw people urging others not to buy bakery products made by Muslims. The ad was “not intended to communalize” and had been put up only after several customers called to inquire if the shop had any Muslim staff member, added the booked bakery owner.
Islamophobia and hatred against Muslims is also being seen in other parts of the country. A video had recently got viral which shows the members of a society gathered together and talking about how they need to stop Muslim vendors from entering their premises to sell anything. They were seen stopping all vegetable sellers with their barrow and handcarts and forced to show their id cards. They are also seen talking about a Muslim vendor told that he is a Hindu in a way to sell his vegetables and how they caught him, thrashed him and sent him away.
