Minor girl lured into marriage by Arbaaz posing as Vishal, gang-raped and pressurised to accept Islam
Khandwa district, Madhya Pradesh, India 
18 January, 2022
Case Summary
In a case from Khandwa district, Madhya Pradesh, a man named Arbaaz, who posed as Vishal, and his friend Sadiq, gang-raped a 10th standard girl from Harsud village. Arbaaz had lured the girl into a relationship on Instagram under the false identity of Vishal. He invited her to Khandwa, pretending to marry her, but instead, she was held hostage and taken to Sadiq's government residence, where both men assaulted her. The girl revealed that Arbaaz and Sadiq also took objectionable photos and videos of her, threatening to release them if she resisted. They forced her to convert to Islam, with Arbaaz promising marriage if she complied. When she resisted, the men locked her up and fled. The girl managed to escape and reported the incident to the police. While Sadiq, a government employee, was arrested, Arbaaz remained at large. The Hindu Jagran Manch, led by district president Anish Arjhare, labelled the incident as a love jihad case and called for strict action against the culprits. The police filed charges, including rape and sexual abuse, against the accused.
Why it is Hate Crime ?
This case has been added to the hate tracker under the prime-category- Hate Crimes against women in relationship and sexual crimes. The sub-category selected under the aforementioned category is- Forced conversion before marriage- In such cases, a non-Hindu man is in a relationship with a Hindu woman when the pressure to convert her religion begins to manifest. The relationship in such cases is mostly consensual and the religious identity of the perpetrator is known to the Hindu woman in the relationship, however, at some point during the relationship, the non-Hindu man starts to force the victim to convert her religion and give up her Hindu religious identity. In such cases, the methods used to force the victim to convert her religion often revolve around force-feeding beef, forcing her to wear hijab, forcing her to read the Kalma or even pressurizing the victim to do ‘Nikah’, which is marriage under Islamic law, with a prerequisite being conversion to Islam. Cases where a Hindu woman consensually converts to Islam in a relationship will be left out of the hate crime database, even though it could be argued in several cases that the conversion was a result of religious brainwashing. Another element of the case is grooming. In our database, we have not added incidents where women have converted to another religion of their free will and no allegations of forced/involuntary conversion have been made. However, there are certain cases of conversion where the consent itself is a result of the brainwashing or grooming of a minor by the non-Hindu perpetrator trying to victimise a woman for her Hindu religious identity. The phenomenon of grooming points to non-Hindu perpetrators identifying their Hindu victims’ vulnerabilities and exploiting them over months and sometimes years, to extract the supposed ‘consent’ in order to convert their religion. In most cases of grooming, the victims are minors or the grooming started when the victim was a minor. In other cases of grooming, the non-Hindu perpetrator brainwashes and grooms a minor victim to extract their trust and then proceeds to rape them repeatedly with the intent of converting them to their faith. It is pertinent to understand here that when the victim is a minor, the ‘consent’ to convert or enter into a romantic relationship with an adult itself is redundant – addressed by POCSO. While every case of conversion of a minor and incidents of establishing a physical relationship with a minor by an adult is a crime, for the purpose of this database, a case would be considered a hate crime only if there is a distinct religious angle to the grooming. For example, in the UK, if a Hindu minor is targeted by Pakistani grooming gangs, it would be considered a hate crime because the victims are specifically targeted owing to their non-Muslim religious identity with the perpetrators being Muslim. In other cases, if a Hindu minor is brainwashed into entering a physical relationship with the non-Hindu adult perpetrator and the family alleges grooming/brainwashing of the minor to convert her religion, it would form a part of this database. If the victim is a Hindu adult, the case would form a part of this database only if the victim herself says that she was brainwashed/groomed to convert her religion. However, if the victim is deceased (murdered or otherwise), the case would form a part of this database if her family/friends provided testimony that the victim was brainwashed/groomed to convert her religion. Since these crimes have a distinct religious angle where the victim is being targeted owing to her Hindu religious identity, these cases are considered a hate crime. The case from Khandwa district, Madhya Pradesh, involving Arbaaz (posing as Vishal) and his accomplice Sadiq, is a clear instance of a religiously motivated hate crime. This crime was driven by deceit, coercion, and the intent to forcibly convert the victim to Islam. Arbaaz lured the victim into a relationship by assuming a false Hindu identity, which in itself demonstrates manipulation aimed at exploiting the victim’s religious beliefs. Once the girl was deceived and brought to Khandwa under the pretence of marriage, she was subjected to physical and sexual assault by both Arbaaz and Sadiq. The element of forced religious conversion further marks this as a hate crime, as the perpetrators sought to impose their religion on the victim, using threats and violence to break her will. The men took objectionable photos and videos, threatening to release them as a means of blackmail, adding an additional layer of psychological manipulation to coerce her into converting to Islam. The intent to strip her of her religious identity through force and deception shows religious animosity, making this a hate crime. It highlights a broader pattern where vulnerable individuals are targeted based on their religion, with the aim of coercing them into abandoning their faith through intimidation and violence.
Victim Details
Total Victim
1
Deceased
0
Gender
- Male 0
- Female 1
- Third Gender 0
- Unknown 0
Caste
- SC/ST 0
- OBC 0
- General 0
- Unknown 1
Age Group
- Minor 1
- Adult 0
- Senior Citizen 0
- Unknown 0
Case Status
Arrested
Perpetrators Details
Perpetrators
Muslim Extremists
Perpetrators Range
From 2 To 5
Perpetrators Gender
male
Sources 
