Balloon vendor Chand Babu stalks and harasses Hindu teacher to do Nikah with him, issues death threats to her family

Case ID : 04aee5a | Location : Gonda, Uttar Pradesh, India | Date of Incident : Sun, 1 September, 2024

Case ID : 04aee5a

Gonda, Uttar Pradesh, India

1 September, 2024

Balloon vendor Chand Babu stalks and harasses Hindu teacher to do Nikah with him, issues death threats to her family

Predatory Proselytisation

Harassment, threats, coercion for conversion

Case Summary

In Gonda district of Uttar Pradesh, a Muslim man, Tanveer alias Chand Babu, harassed and forcibly pressured a Hindu private school teacher, to do Nikah with him. The victim, an OBC community member, lodged a formal complaint with the Superintendent of Police after facing continued harassment for over two months. Chand Babu followed her to school, sprayed suspicious substances on her and demanded that she marry him. Despite her protests, his advances persisted. The harassment escalated when the victim confided in her mother, who then confronted Chand Babu at his residence. Instead of resolving the issue, his family members joined in, verbally abusing the victim's mother and brandishing a sword, threatening to kill her if she did not agree to the marriage. Fearing for her life, the victim’s mother fled to the police, but the initial response from local law enforcement was apathetic. The situation worsened when Chand Babu began harassing the victim’s sister, threatening to sabotage her upcoming marriage. He stalked both sisters in public spaces, making videos of them and threatening to share them widely. Chand Babu, who lives near a mosque and works as a decorator and balloon vendor, even made death threats against the entire family. Following the victim’s meeting with the Superintendent of Police on September 2, 2024, the Gonda police directed the SHO of Kotwali to investigate the case thoroughly.

Why it is Hate Crime ?

In this case, the Muslim perpetrator was threatening and forcing a Hindu woman to do Nikah with him. Nikah is marriage per Islamic customs where conversion to Islam is a prerequisite. For that reason, this case is being added to the primary category "Predatory Proselytisation" under the sub-category "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. In this case, the Muslim man was threatening a Hindu woman to do Nikah with him - Marriage as per Islamic traditions and customs. The prerequisite of Nikah is that both parties - the bride and groom - are Muslims. Therefore, if Nikah is done with a Hindu woman, the prerequisite is that the Hindu woman convert to Islam, change her name to a Muslim name and follow Islamic religious practices. While the Muslim man forcing and threatening the Hindu woman is a crime ab initio, what substantiates the religious motivation of the crime is that the perpetrator was forcing the woman to do Nikah. Further, after the woman complained to her family, the Muslim perpetrator's family threatened her family with swords, proving that it was a crime motivated by the religious animosity of the entire family. Since the crime was driven out of religious animosity and the aim of disenfranchising the Hindu woman from her professed faith, the case is being categorised as a religiously motivated hate crime.