Man harassed on suspicion of carrying bag made from cowhide,

FIR lodged Mumbai, Aug 22 (PTI) The Mumbai Police today registered acase of criminal intimidation against unidentified persons whoallegedly questioned a 24-year-old man in a menacing way onsuspicion that his bag was made from cow skin. The incident had happened on Friday with Barun Kashyap,who hails from Assam and works as creative director with aprivate firm, in suburban Andheri. Kashyap wrote about it in a Facebook post, followingwhich the police initially lodged a non-cognisable offence. "With a permission from the magistrate’s court, we todayregistered an FIR against a group of men who allegedlyaccosted Kashyap," a senior official said. The FIR was lodged under sections 504 (intentional insultwith intent to provoke breach of peace) and 506 (criminalintimidation) of the IPC. Further probe was underway, the official said. According to Kashyap, when he was travelling to hisworkplace in an auto-rickshaw, the driver became curious abouthis identity. At a traffic signal, the driver started looking atKashyap’s leather bag and concluded after touching it that itwas made from cowhide. Kashyap told him it was made from camel leather andbought from Pushkar. But the he was not satisfied. The driver then stopped the vehicle near a temple andsignalled three men sitting there. They asked Kashyap to stepout, which he refused. One of them examined his bag. "One of them asked my full name. He looked at the othertwo and said something in Marathi…I could only understandthe word ‘Brahmin’. May be hearing Kashyap, they thought I ama Brahmin and left the spot," he said. Kashyap also noted the vehicle’s registration number andasked the driver for his phone number before getting down atthe next traffic signal. PTI AVI KRKTIRJMF