An arson attack on the house of an Indian family in the south-eastern English county of Kent is being treated by the police as a hate crime.

The Metropolitan Police said they were treating the case of arson and criminal damage on the house in Orpington, a popular commuter town, as a hate crime but were yet to make any arrests.

On Monday, Mayur Karlekar, the head of digital at a consulting firm, posted a video on the social media of a large fire at his home soon after midnight on Saturday, which he said had been deliberately set by a group of four-five young people.

The family of four managed to escape, while neighbours called the fire brigade. “We all were sleeping and were luckily woken up by neighbours on time,” he wrote, noting the biggest damage to the house had taken place close to his son’s bedroom. “We are glad it was stopped on time but the damage to our neighbourhood, our society, to our home has been done, irrecoverably,” he wrote.

“I was a special police myself doing voluntary unpaid work. We all support multiple UK charities, including helping young people to be entrepreneurs and do something good with their life. This act, happening to us, was a complete shock.”

‘Little support’

Karlekar, who has been in the UK for nearly two decades, told BusinessLine that in all his time living various parts of the country, he had never experienced anything like this. However, he was quite critical of the police response which, he said had only come after a push by him for action to be taken and for local CCTV to be checked.

“I felt I had to act as a tour guide to help them,” he said. “It was not a comfortable experience. There was little support for us or priority given to the incident.” He said that he had reached out on social media to help the inquiry and to raise awareness to ensure no other homes were hit.

The attack on Karlekar’s home comes at a time of increased concern around rising hate crimes against different communities in the UK.

Rising crimes

On Wednesday, the police said they were treating a hit-and-run attack outside a mosque in north-west London, which injured three people, as a possible hate crime.

Britain’s Crown Prosecution Service and police identify hate crimes as “any criminal offence which is perceived by the victim or any other person, to be motivated by hostility or prejudice, based on a person's disability or perceived disability; race or perceived race; or religion or perceived religion; or sexual orientation or perceived sexual orientation or transgender identity or perceived transgender identity.” It can range from verbal intimidation to harassment, assault and attacks on property

After an initial spike following the Brexit referendum, the rate of hate crimes still remains high, worrying the police force across the country. A report by the police regulator in July warned there was a “real possibility” that hate crime could increase in 2019, when Britain is set to formally leave the EU and urged police forces to prepare for this eventuality. “The continued focus on hate crime by the government, the police and partner organisations is imperative,” the report concluded.

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