Vijay Rawat joined his friend Deepak Kumar Kashyap, a local gym owner, to confront Bajrang Dal vigilantes harassing a 70-year-old Muslim shopkeeper in Kotdwar, Uttarakhand, on January 26. Vigilantes demanded that the shopkeeper, who is suffering from Parkinson’s disease, remove “Baba” from his shop’s name. Driven by a sense of humanity, Vijay and Deepak – whose intervention has since gone viral – stepped in.

Speaking to Newslaundry, the 38-year-old Vijay said, “Although I didn't know the shopkeeper personally, his shop has been around for 30–35 years, and my close friend runs the business next door. Fearing for the shopkeeper's health – and knowing he had been targeted twice before by such groups – we drove them away out of a........

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