Minor Hindu girl raped in a field, forced to convert to Islam by accused Firoz in Kaushambi, Uttar Pradesh
Kaushambi District, Uttar Pradesh, India 
19 August, 2024
Case Summary
In Kaushambi district of Uttar Pradesh, a minor Hindu girl was raped and pressured to convert her religion to Islam. The 16-year-old girl had gone to a field early in the morning to defecate when her neighbour, Firoz, reportedly attacked and raped her. He started forcing her to convert to Islam. Hearing her screams, locals rushed to the scene, but Firoz fled before they arrived. Following the victim's complaint, the police registered a case against the accused and arrested him.
Why it is Hate Crime ?
This case has been added to the hate tracker under the prime category- Predatory Proselytisation. Under this, the sub-category selected here is- Harassment, threats, coercion for conversion- Harassment covers a wide range of behaviours of an offensive nature. It is commonly understood as behaviour that demeans, humiliates, and intimidates a person, including threats and coercion. Harassment and threats, in this case, find their root on discriminatory grounds which has the effect of nullifying a person’s rights or infringing upon his freedom to exercise his right specifically owing to the victim’s religious identity. Verbal and physical threats and psychological or physical harassment are often used against Hindu victims because they choose to practice their professed religion. Religious harassment also includes forced and involuntary conversions by harassment, threats or coercion. Coercion includes intimidatory tactics like force-feeding a Hindu victim beef to convert to another religion, forceful circumcision etc. In several cases documented, non-Hindu perpetrators or those who harbour specific animosity towards Hinduism, harass victims simply based on their religious identity. Such cases often also include harassment to ensure the Hindu victim abandons his/her professed religion and adopts the religion of the perpetrator. In this subcategory, we would only include cases where the victim was harassed, threatened or coerced to convert. Cases where attempts were made to convert but the victim resisted would be documented in another sub-category. Such cases where Hindu victims are harassed to convert to the perpetrator’s religion are rooted in animosity towards the victim’s religious identity and are therefore documented as religiously motivated hate crimes. The underlying motivation of predatory proselytisation itself is animosity towards the professed faith of the victim. In this case, there was violence involved in the pressure exerted to forcefully convert the Hindu girl. Further, the central aim of the perpetrator was to disenfranchise the Hindu girl from her professed faith. Since the central motivation is religion, this case has been added as a hate crime.
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
Complaint registered
Perpetrators Details
Perpetrators
Muslim Extremists
Perpetrators Range
One Person
Perpetrators Gender
male
Sources 
