I only know for German law, but over here the requirement is that the crime must have a basis in physical law. That is, somebody trying to murder you with a Voodoo doll cannot be held responsible, but somebody weak throwing a rock at you and falling short can, because even though the attempt had no practical chance at succeeding it was based on a legitimate physical premise.

He ran away after the incident with the church, not with the fakir. This is BBC being typical BBC when it comes to India.

After the TV show with the fakir, there were lively debates on TV about superstitions, science etc. I don't think he felt a threat to life, since many Hindus publicly supported him. The response in the church incident was completely different. (Not saying that the fakir incident couldn't have been a contributing factor in whether he felt safe.)

On BBC's India coverage: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Anti-Indian_sentiment#BBC

I guess as much as someone pointing a toy gun at someone else while going "pew! pew! I swear this is a real gun!"

Isn't the difference there that in your example the person clearly did not intend to kill anyone?

Most jurisdictions would consider that to be aggravated assault.