Legally Right to Beat Up A Muslim in MP?

News: Madhya Pradesh Police beat up a man because they “thought he was Muslim”, and are now putting him under pressure to withdraw his complaint.

Here are five components of the story:

• Lawyer Deepak Bundele was on his way to the district hospital when he was beaten up by the state police on March 23, 2020. They only stopped beating him when they realised he was a lawyer, by which point significant damage had been done.
• He filed a complaint with the Superintendent of Police D. S. Bhadoria and the State Director General of Police Vivek Johri, and also wrote letters to the Chief Justice of Madhya Pradesh High Court.
• In response to his actions, there has been immense police pressure on him to withdraw the complaint. He was told that for him to be able to peacefully practice law, he should take back his complaint.
• On May 17, police officials finally came to his house to record his statement after he insisted the police file an FIR. He was at this point told by police officials that they had “seen his long beard” and “mis-identified him as a Muslim”, which is why they beat him up.
• The police officials kept trying to get him to withdraw his complaint, explaining that the officials who beat up Bundele are staunch Hindu supporters who always beat up Muslims during any Hindu-Muslim riots in the district.

Image source: https://cdn.thewire.in/wp-content/uploads/2020/05/20102011/letter-collage.jpg