'I Love Muhammad' Temple Graffiti: How UP Police 'Spell Check' Caught Culprits, Foiled Communal Plot

Last Updated:October 31, 2025, 17:35 IST

The slogans were scrawled on the walls of four Aligarh temples by five Hindu men to implicate their Muslim neighbours

The police probe, utilising technical surveillance, CCTV footage, and call detail records, led them to the four arrested men, identified as Jishant Kumar, Akash Kumar, Dilip Kumar, and Abhishek Sarswat. A fifth accused, identified as Rahul, is currently absconding. Representational pic/PTI

The Uttar Pradesh Police in Aligarh have arrested four individuals, all from the Hindu community, for allegedly orchestrating a deliberate act of religious vandalism—writing the slogan “I love Muhammad" on the walls of four local temples—with the calculated intention of falsely implicating their Muslim neighbours in a property dispute. The shocking revelation averted a potentially severe communal flare-up in the villages of Bhagwanpur and Bulaqigarh, where the graffiti was discovered on October 25.

The key to unravelling the conspiracy lay in a minute detail: spelling errors.

According to Aligarh Senior Superintendent of Police (SSP) Neeraj Kumar Jadaun, the slogans scrawled on the shrines were misspelt with variations like “Mohmad" and “Muhmad". Police investigators, who had promptly reached the scene to erase the graffiti and calm local tensions, noted that the consistent and similar misspellings across all four locations did not align with previous instances of similar slogans seen on banners during recent protests in Bareilly. This crucial discrepancy raised immediate suspicion of internal mischief rather than a genuine act of religious provocation.

The police probe, utilising technical surveillance, CCTV footage, and call detail records, led them to the four arrested men, identified as Jishant Kumar, Akash Kumar, Dilip Kumar, and Abhishek Sarswat. A fifth accused, identified as Rahul, is currently absconding.

The investigation revealed that the entire plot was rooted in long-standing personal and land-related disputes. One of the arrested men, Jishant Kumar, had a violent altercation and pending cross-cases with a local Muslim resident named Mustaqeem. Furthermore, the absconding accused, Rahul, is the son of an individual embroiled in a significant property dispute over a house with another Muslim family member, Gul Mohammad, whose residence was next to one of the defaced temples.

The conspirators’ intent was clear and malicious: by vandalising their own temples with a religious slogan, they aimed to incite immediate communal tension. They then filed a complaint, naming their Muslim rivals—including Maulvi Mustaqeem, Gul Mohammad, and several others—believing that the swift police action expected in such a sensitive case would ensure the immediate arrest of the rivals. This move, they calculated, would significantly weaken the Muslim party’s position in the ongoing land and legal disputes, effectively using the volatile communal atmosphere for personal gain.

Following the arrests, police registered a case against the accused under relevant sections of the Bharatiya Nyaya Sanhita (BNS) pertaining to promoting enmity and disturbing public peace. SSP Jadaun confirmed that the original case filed against the eight Muslim residents, based on the graffiti, will now be withdrawn, underscoring how a meticulous investigation and a minor linguistic clue successfully exposed a dangerous attempt at communal fabrication.

Pathikrit Sen Gupta

Pathikrit Sen Gupta is a Senior Associate Editor with News18.com and likes to cut a long story short. He writes sporadically on Politics, Sports, Global Affairs, Space, Entertainment, And Food. He trawls X via ...Read More

Pathikrit Sen Gupta is a Senior Associate Editor with News18.com and likes to cut a long story short. He writes sporadically on Politics, Sports, Global Affairs, Space, Entertainment, And Food. He trawls X via ...

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