Minor Hindu girl gang-raped, blackmailed with obscene videos to offer Namaz and convert; accused Rizwan, Wasim and Roshu assault her family for opposing
Baghpat, Uttar Pradesh, India 
30 August, 2024
Case Summary
In the Kotwali area of Baghpat, Uttar Pradesh, a minor Hindu girl studying in Class 8 was gang-raped by Muslim youths Rizwan, Wasim, and his brother Roshu. After sexually abusing her, they attempted to kidnap the girl from her house and thrashed her family members for opposing them. They pressurised her to convert to Islam by threatening to leak her private videos. Further, they taught her how to wear the Hijab and offer Namaz through video call. The 15-year-old victim's father filed a complaint on August 31, 2024, leading to Rizwan's arrest the following day. In the complaint, the father stated that his daughter went missing around 7 pm. She was later found at a nearby house owned by Wasim, where they discovered Rizwan in a compromising position with the minor. After the confrontation, the father brought his daughter home. Later, Rizwan, along with Wasim and his brother Roshu, armed with sticks, forced their way into the family's home, verbally abused them, and threatened to kidnap the girl again. When the family resisted, they were assaulted. The victim revealed that Wasim had lured her to his house under the pretext of giving her clean clothes. Rizwan had reportedly been pressuring her for religious conversion, making threats to release her obscene video if she did not comply. He had been teaching her Islamic practices via video calls, including how to wear a hijab and say religious greetings like "salam." The father also mentioned that his wife had caught their daughter offering Namaz several times. He also revealed Rizwan had manipulated her into giving him Rs 48,000 and a gold ring, intending to take her away. Police named Rizwan, Wasim, and Roshu in the FIR, charging them under sections of the Bharatiya Nyay Sanhita, the Uttar Pradesh Prohibition of Unlawful Religious Conversion Act, and the POCSO Act.
Why it is Hate Crime ?
This case has been classified as a religiously motivated hate crime under the prime category- Predatory Proselytisation. Further, the case has been placed within two sub-categories of the above-mentioned category. The first is- Proselytisation by brainwashing, manipulation or subtle indoctrination, under which one tertiary category, namely, Rape and sexual assault/harassment, has also been selected. Religious brainwashing essentially means the often subtle and forcible indoctrination to induce someone to give up their religious beliefs to accept contrasting regimented ideas. Religious brainwashing also involves propaganda and manipulation. It involves the systematic effort, driven by religious malice and indoctrination, to persuade “non-believers’ to accept allegiance, command, or doctrine to and of a contrasting faith. Cases of such brainwashing are far more nuanced than direct threats, coercion, inducement and violence. In such cases, it is often seen that there is repeated, subtle and continual manipulation of the victim to induce disaffection towards their own faith and acceptance of the contrasting faith of the perpetrator. While subtle indoctrination is widely acknowledged as predatory, an element which is often understated in such conversions or the attempts of such conversion is the role of loyalty and trust which might develop between the perpetrator and the victim. Fiduciary relationships are often abused to affect such religious conversion. For example, an educator transmitting religious doctrine of a competing faith to a Hindu student. The Hindu student is likely to accept what the teacher is transmitting owing to existence of the fiduciary relationship. The exploitation of the fiduciary relationship to religiously indoctrinated victims would also be included in this category. Since the underlying animosity towards the victim’s faith forms the basis of predatory proselytization, such cases are considered religiously motivated hate crimes. The second sub-category relevant here is- Harassment, threats, coercion for conversion and within this, two tertiary categories, namely, 'family claims grooming of minor' and 'victim says she was brainwashed/groomed to accept Islam', have been selected. 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. Here, the accused attempted to forcibly convert a minor Hindu girl to Islam through coercion, manipulation, and violence, reflecting clear signs of predatory proselytisation. Rizwan and his associates not only sexually abused the girl but also attempted to kidnap her from her home when confronted by her family. They threatened to leak her private videos to force her into converting to Islam. The sole aim of the accused here was disenfranchising the victim from her faith. Further, Rizwan taught the minor how to wear a hijab and perform Namaz via video calls. These calculated efforts to indoctrinate her into Islamic practices through threats and religious teachings made it clear that the goal was to strip her of her Hindu identity and coerce her into adopting Islam. Further, what makes the religious motive of the crime even more explicit is that the father of the victim also confirmed that his wife had caught their minor daughter offering Namaz several times. Here, the victim is a minor, which essentially means that the element of consent and genuine change of conscience was missing ab initio. It is a well-established fact that children are more susceptible to manipulation since they are still developing emotionally, cognitively, and socially. Their brains are not fully matured, making them more vulnerable to influence and less capable of critically evaluating information. Since the underlying offence, in this case, was against a minor of a specific faith and involved subtle tactics of indoctrination, which obviously stems from a bias against the Hindu faith, this case is a clear case of religious hate. The violent nature of the crime, coupled with its religious motivations, classifies it as a hate crime driven by animosity towards the victim's Hindu faith.
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
Case sub-judice
Perpetrators Details
Perpetrators
Muslim Extremists
Perpetrators Range
From 2 To 5
Perpetrators Gender
male
Sources 
