So, on one hand, there’s a state like Maharashtra, where a sizable chunk of Muslims consider the police as being biased against Muslims or prone to implicating Muslims in false terror cases but there has been no police violence on anti-CAA protestors. This would largely be due to the political leadership in the state.

On the other hand, the worst affected are states like Uttar Pradesh and Karnataka, where BJP being in power is coupled with what seems to be the biased views of the police.

According to the CSDS survey, 56 percent police respondents in Uttar Pradesh and 49 percent in Karnataka view Muslims as being “naturally prone to crime”. Then in both states, a majority of police respondents justified use of extra-judicial means and violence.

When such a thinking in the police is backed up by the sense that the political leadership won’t object to violence against Muslims, it is bound to have lethal consequences. This is evident in the killing of protestors in both these states.