A young couple from Kerala was allegedly denied a room in a hotel here on Tuesday because they belonged to different faiths.
A young man allegedly that a Bengaluru hotel refused to give him and his wife a room saying that it is not acceptable for a Muslim and a Hindu to stay together.
“We don’t give rooms to Muslims and Hindus who come together,” the receptionist said.
“What if they go into the room and hang themselves…Why do we need that trouble. I’m not saying they’ll commit suicide because they’re a Hindu-Muslim couple. But ordinarily, in villages, it does not happen…There, Hindus don’t get married to Muslim women, and Muslims don’t get married to Hindu women.”
Shafeek Subaida Hakkim and Divya DV had travelled to Bengaluru for work on Tuesday. Hakkim said the receptionist refused to give them a room right after seeing their IDs and kept questioning their interfaith marriage.
Hakkim said in a post shared on social media that they faced discrimination purely because they are an inter-faith couple.
“My wife had an interview at the National Law School in Bangalore. So we reached Bengaluru around 6.30 am, where an auto-driver took us to this hotel. We were just registering when the hotel staff checked our identity cards. Suddenly, he stopped us and said they won’t give a room. I asked him why he said very casually – we don’t give a room for ‘Divya’ and ‘Shafeek.’ He openly admitted that they don’t give room to a Muslim male with a Hindu girl,” said Shafeek.
No complaint has been lodged and the police are not taking any suo motu action, a police officer at the Wilson Garden police station here said.
“We visited the hotel because of it was in the news, but the hotel said the couple was denied a room because they did not provide ID proof,” the officer said.
