New Delhi: Early this year, a Hindutva mob barged into an old Muslim man’s shop in Uttarakhand’s Kotdwar, asking him to change the name of the shop from ‘Baba’. The mob claimed that ‘Baba’ was a ‘Hindu’ name. A 42-year-old Hindu gym trainer, Deepak Kumar, confronted the mob. When charged with questions on his religious identity, Kumar had said that his name was ‘Mohammad Deepak’. This stirring act of secular amity did not melt the mob, which returned in larger numbers to attack him.A crowd later arrived to attack Deepak Kumar for standing up for the Muslim shopkeeper. While Deepak Kumar had named Aman Swedia, Siddhant Badoni, Bhupi Chaudhary, and others in his complaint, Uttarakhand Police lodged FIRs against ‘unnamed’ individuals for disturbing peace.Meanwhile, Deepak, who stood up for his Muslim neighbour, has lost money on his gym ever since. With locals boycotting his sole source of income, reports say that he may have to vacate his gym and move out of the city.The men he had named have seen very different days, meanwhile.§A man laced up with a microphone walks into a shop and says, “It’s been 12 years since you rented this shop to him. They are running away with our sisters. You are strengthening them.” It turns out that the person being spoken to is the owner of a building and a Hindu. The shopkeeper, to whom he has rented the premises, is a Muslim man.In a three-minute 15-second-long video with multiple cuts, the man goes on to call for the economic boycott of Muslims and says they are purveyors of ‘love jihad’ – a bogey popularised by Hindutva politics claiming that Muslim men convert Hindu women through marriage. “If a Muslim asks to rent a shop from you, never rent to him. Even if you have to rent a shop to a Hindu for a lesser price, rent it to a Hindu. They take shops for jihad, not for business. Your money is used for love jihad and spit jihad,” the man is heard saying.He then brings up a third kind of jihad – “name jihad”. “They have named the shop ‘Aasu’. I want to know if Aasu is a Muslim or not.” He is seen going up to a young boy, probably a minor, and asks him for the name of the owner. The boy replies, “The owner’s name is Ehsaan.”The original Reel is no longer on Facebook. But until at least May 25, it was up and could be seen and shared by anyone. The video had over 2.5 million views, 23,000 shares and 190,000 likes.The man giving the hateful monologue in the video is Aman Swedia – the very same who had been named by Mohammad Deepak as having been among the group that attacked him a second time. Swedia has a full shooting set-up – complete with lighting, microphones, and what appears to be a good camera. Swedia says that his father is a journalist and that he studied at the DAV College in Dehradun. “After graduating, I started a security company that provides bouncers and guards to companies and outlets,” he tells The Wire.Swedia’s Facebook bio describes him as a digital creator but he says that his videos on Facebook are not monetised, i.e. he does not make money from them, and that he is “serving society” through his work. “I am not doing it for money,” he says. The Wire has asked Meta, Facebook’s parent company, if Swedia’s claim of not making money through this page is true. In its reply, Meta did not address this particular question but said it is reviewing these accounts. When asked how he manages to produce videos with a reasonably high quality of sound, camera work, and editing without any money coming in, he says, “Our dedicated Bajrang Dal workers record and edit the videos.”The Dehradun Exclusive page which uploads many hate videos.Is Swedia concerned that what he is doing amounts to hate speech? Is he worried that he is in effect vilifying all Muslims? “Not all Muslims are terrorists, but why are all terrorists Muslims?” he asks in response.“There is a conspiracy to change the biography of Uttarakhand,” he adds. When we asked if he is referring to demographic change, he corrects himself, “Yes, yes, demography of Uttarakhand.”Swedia’s personal Facebook account is full of reshared content from another Facebook page called ‘Dehradun Exclusives.’ Dehradun Exclusives is where Swedia posts videos of harassing Muslims and giving hate speeches. This page has over 3,89,000 followers. The profile picture of the page appears AI-generated and shows the Hindu deity Hanuman holding his mace above his head. In the cover photo, a man is feeding a cow. The text on the cover photo says, “Gau Seva (serving cows). Feed, protect, respect. Stand with us for cow welfare.” The bio of the page says, “Bajrangi Dehradun in action, a powerful glimpse into devotion, discipline, and dedication towards protecting dharma.”The Dehradun Exclusive page which uploads many hate videos.Aman Swedia has no qualms about claiming to be a member of the Bajrang Dal, the youth wing of the Vishwa Hindu Parishad, a militant Hindutva group closely linked to the Rashtriya Swayamsevak Sangh and India’s ruling Bharatiya Janata Party. The VHP has not responded to The Wire’s questions on the role of men like Swedia.“We have a network of Bajrang Dal members who work as informers, and we also coordinate with the police on every case,” Swedia tells The Wire. Dehradun Police has not responded to The Wire’s question about the claim that police work with Swedia to lead him to such “cases.”Enter Mohammad DeepakClearly popular in Uttarakhand, Swedia’s claim to national fame was the Mohammad Deepak attack. The Wire has seen a copy of the FIR which does not name Swedia or any of the people named by Deepak. The men named in the complaint were seen as part of the mob going to attack Deepak Kumar in multiple videos. The charges against the unnamed persons were under Section 7 of the Criminal Law Amendment Act, 1932, for molesting a person to the prejudice of employment or business, along with Bharatiya Nyay Sanhita sections 12(2) for voluntarily causing grievous hurt to any person being a public servant in the discharge of duty, 126(2) for wrongful restraint, 191(2) for rioting, BNS 196(2) for promoting enmity between different groups, and BN 352 for intentional insult with intent to provoke breach of peace.At least four men who claim to be associated with Bajrang Dal and who were part of the mob which attacked Deepak Kumar appear to still continue to propagate anti-Muslim rhetoric on Facebook pages like ‘Dehradun Exclusive.’Among those frequently seen in videos on Dehradun Exclusives is Sidhant Badoni.In a video posted by Bhadoni in collaboration with Dehradun Exclusives, Bhadoni and Aman Swedia, along with a mob, can be seen knocking on a door. A man and an elderly woman come out. Men in the mob ask, “Why have you rented a shop to a Muslim man?” The man replies, “This is my property I’ll rent to whoever I want.” Men in the mob tell the man that those Hindus who rent their properties to Muslims are “traitors.”A part of a trendFrom cow vigilantism, which gave name and fame to people like T. Raja Singh and Monu Manesar, Hindutva vigilantism has spread its operations into attacking Muslim businesses, Muslim people staying at hotels and Muslim children going to madrasas. Shooting videos while doing these has also emerged as an easy way to climb the ladder in an organisation like the Bajrang Dal while also making money by receiving millions of views. The Wire has asked the VHP if it endorses such efforts. This report will be updated if a response is received.But a few examples illustrate the trend. Ravindra Negi, who began as a full-time vigilante is now an MLA from the Bharatiya Janata Party. Negi had garnered a reputation for targeting Muslim shopkeepers by asking them to put their names on shops and asking Muslim meat sellers to keep shutters down during Navaratri. In most of his videos, Negi had a mic laced to himself and walked ahead of the camera. In one video, he heckles a Muslim shopkeeper named Monu to write his full name, ‘Monu Khan’, on the shop’s signboard. Negi became an MLA in 2025. In 2024, shopkeepers across Western Uttar Pradesh were asked by the UP government to write their names on shops to reveal their religious identity before the Supreme Court stayed the directive. Memes also lend credence to this prejudice, like the one below. A ‘UPI’ meme.There are many like Negi who have made a following for themselves by uploading hate content. An example is one Bobby Chaudhary on Instagram who records himself harassing Muslim people often. In a video reportedly from Fatehpur Sikri in Uttar Pradesh, he can be seen threatening a Muslim biryani seller for selling biryani on a Tuesday, a day considered auspicious to a section of Hindus. He has over 50,000 followers on Instagram and has over 573 posts. His bio says: “गौ सेवा परमो धर्मः (serving cows is my religion)” and “DM for paid promotion.”Bobby’s model of making a livelihood through hate finds great success in Daksha Chaudhary who has over 3.3 million followers on Instagram. He routinely deletes violent videos after they have been widely shared and viewed, perhaps in an effort to avoid getting their accounts suspended. However, among the things that have remained on his account is a viral video in which he is seen beating a Muslim man named Imran allegedly for having been in a relationship with a minor Hindu girl. His bio also reads ‘digital creator’.These videos stand out not just because of their quality and frequency but the impunity with which the actions shown by them are carried out. The videos are not hidden in private Telegram groups but are posted publicly on Facebook, gather millions of views, and are shot openly in the presence of the public and in areas where police personnel can see them. Dehradun Police have not responded to The Wire’s questions on them.The pre-conceived violence in these videos distinguishes them from the earlier trend of publishing videos which appear to be incidentally recording violent action. On May 14, 2026, Aman Swedia and his men recorded themselves barging into a house and accusing a Muslim man named Mohammad Jafar of hiding his identity by using the name “Raj Kumar Malik.” Swedia asks the landlord, “Do you know his name is Mohammed Jafar, and not Raj Kumar Malik?” The landlord, who appears Hindu from the tilak on his forehead, replies, “So what? It is my home. I will decide who to give on rent. Who are you to tell me?” Swedia is then heard shifting to another conspiracy theory and alleges that the man had “come from Bangladesh.” The landlord again pushes back and asks Swedia for proof. The video also features Siddhant Badoni. It has over 4.6 lakh views.Just four days earlier, on May 10, Swedia uploaded a video in which he is seen issuing an open ultimatum for violence in front of police. Standing in a market area, he declares, “This is a Hindu area. If these shops are not vacated by tomorrow, then Bajrang Dal will vandalise these shops.” Instead of taking action against the mob threatening violence, police personnel can be seen shutting down the shutters of a unisex salon.The Wire has reached out to Dehradun Police for a response on these videos. This piece will be updated when we hear back.The pattern repeats itself across dozens of videos posted by ‘Dehradun Exclusives’.In another video posted on May 8, Aman Swedia and his associates claim that Muslims had attacked a Hindu woman. Using the incident to call for an economic boycott, Swedia appeals to Hindu landlords not to rent shops to Muslims. “Even if you have to rent your shop to a Hindu for Rs 1,000 less, rent it to him. If you rent your shop to a Muslim, then they will do jihad,” he says, repeating his content from a video mentioned earlier in this piece. The video has over 5.2 lakh views.On April 30, Aman Swedia and Siddhant Badoni are seen stopping a car on the road and forcefully pulling out a Muslim man and a woman travelling with him. Claiming that the man was involved in escort services, the Bajrang Dal members publicly humiliate him while police stand nearby. In the video, a police officer can be heard asking Aman, “Where are escort services taking place?” A scuffle between the vigilantes and police also appear to break out during the incident. The video has 1.6 million views.Five days before that, on April 25, Bajrang Dal members led by Aman Swedia and Siddhant Badoni were seen surrounding the house of a Muslim man after claiming that he has eloped with a minor Hindu girl. Standing outside the house, Swedia says the police are supporting Muslims. Siddhant Badoni escalates the rhetoric further and says, “Shame on those who are letting these people construct mosques in Devbhoomi. These people run away with our sisters and hide them in their mosques.” He adds a rape threat: “Till the time our sister is not found, send their sisters to our home.”Through their videos, Muslim men are portrayed as predators, Hindu women portrayed as victims needing protection, and Muslim homes, hotels, shops, and mosques are presented as suspicious spaces.On April 23, Bajrang Dal men barged into a hotel in Dehradun claiming that a Muslim boy was hiding his religious identity while staying with a Hindu woman. Both the man and the woman were present in the room when the mob entered. Aman Swedia is heard claiming in a video, “His name is Kadir Khan and his duty is love jihad. Maulanas give them jobs to trap Hindu women. These people are funded by mosques and madrasas.” At the end of the video, police can be seen taking the Muslim boy away. The video has over 2 million views.In a video posted on April 19, Aman Swedia and his associates visit multiple Lenskart stores in Dehradun. He asks employees, “All my brothers are Hindu, right?” before applying tilak on their foreheads on camera. The video has 10.8 million views.Some videos clearly feature children. On April 18, Aman Swedia claims in a video that Muslim children from Bihar were coming to Dehradun and enrolling in madrasas. He questions young Muslim boys about what they study in madrasas and then takes them to a police station while shouting “Stop Madrasa Jihad.” The video has 1.4 million views.On April 10, Bajrang Dal members are seen barging into a flat and harassing Muslim men while accusing them of trapping Hindu women. Siddhant Badoni threatens property dealers against renting flats to Muslims and says, “We won’t spare you.” The video has over a million views.The targeting of Muslims in hotels appears frequently in this ecosystem of content creation. On 3 April, Bajrang Dal members barged into a hotel room and manhandled a Muslim man named Mohd Sahil while alleging that he had brought a Hindu woman there forcefully. The video crosses 6.8 million views.The videos show that vigilantism does not seem to be only about propagating a certain ideology, but is becoming a profitable and algorithmically rewarded genre of content creation. The microphone, the camera, the dramatic confrontations, the slogans, and the communal accusations are all part of a tried and tested format that appears to be profitable. We have identified at least six Instagram accounts with collectively over 325,000 followers and the Facebook page Dehradun Exclusives which has over 383,000 followers, which appear to directly violate the Meta guidelines on hate speech and misinformation. In a reply to questions, a Meta spokesperson said the company is reviewing the accounts. The company said:“We have clear policies on hateful conduct that prohibits content that attacks people based on protected characteristics, such as ethnicity or religion. We remove any language that incites or facilitates serious violence and disable accounts and work with law enforcement when we believe there is genuine risk of physical harm or direct threats to public safety. We are reviewing the accounts shared with us and will remove any content that violates our policies.”Many of these videos have been reported for violent, hateful or disturbing content but continue to be featured on the pages.The Wire is awaiting replies to more questions on how these groups function from the VHP and Dehradun Police. This piece will be updated when responses come in.This report, published first at 6:48 pm on May 25, 2026, was updated and republished at 11 am on May 28, 2026.