Muslim man poses as Hindu and gang-rapes minor Hindu girl. Marries her in temple then forces her to convert to Islam and consume meat
Muzaffarnagar, Uttar Pradesh, India 
5 August, 2019
Case Summary
In Muzaffarnagar district, Uttar Pradesh, a minor girl from Nepal accused Abdul Salam of posing as a Hindu, coercing her into marriage and conversion to Islam. She also alleged that he forced her to consume meat. Police arrested Abdul Salam and filed an FIR against six named individuals and two unidentified ones. The victim, a 26-year-old Hindu woman from Kapilvastu district, Nepal, claims to have encountered Abdul Salam, who introduced himself as Ajay, while residing in Sultanpur, South Delhi, when she was a minor. He befriended her under false pretenses of love. Later, he sexually exploited while she was still a minor. She also got pregnant several times, but Abdul made her undergo abortions. When the victim pressured her to marry him, Abdul Salam married her on August 6, 2019, at an Arya Samaj temple in Delhi. The victim was forced to sign on blank paper. In 2021, the victim became the mother of a girl child. Upon admission to the hospital, the victim discovered that Ajay was not a Hindu. Salam then issued threats to the victim and her daughter, coercing her into silence. Seven months following the birth of their daughter, Abdul Salam brought the victim to his village, Jaula. Abdul, his father Idris, brother Asif and Amil, maternal uncle and 2 brothers-in-law raped the victim one after the other. They threatened to kill the victim and her daughter. They also force-fed her meat. In November 2023, Abdul Salam began distancing himself from the victim, who later discovered that he had married another girl. Upon visiting Abdul's village to investigate, the victim was subjected to physical assault. Subsequently, the victim released a video detailing her ordeal and demanded strict action against Abdul Salam and others involved. An FIR was lodged against Abdul Salam, Idris, Asif, Amil, Abdul, Shamsher, and two other unidentified individuals. On April 8, Muzaffarnagar police announced the arrest of Abdul Salam, with ongoing efforts to locate the remaining.
Why it is Hate Crime ?
When a non-Hindu man pretends to be a Hindu to deceive a Hindu woman into a relationship, the act is seen as triggered by malafide intentions. In some cases, the woman eventually accepts the man’s original religious identity and converts after the man’s identity is revealed. These cases could be argued as cases of religious brainwashing and a result of the pressure a woman feels after getting into a relationship with a man. The woman, it can be argued, also changed her religious identity because of the stigma she believes she might face if she chooses to walk out of a deceptive relationship. However, for the purpose of documenting hate crimes, the cases in this subcategory are limited to those where there is explicit violence aimed at religious conversion against the wishes of the victim (force-feeding beef, blackmailing with intimate videos, rape on refusal to convert, etc), or if the woman herself complains of the man’s religious deception. In such cases, it is established that the deception of the non-Hindu man had a specific aim of religious conversion or targeting of the victim due to her Hindu religious identity, therefore, making it a religiously motivated hate crime. The victim in the given case was a Hindu woman. The perpetrator, a Muslim man, got into a relationship with the victim by misleading the victim about his religious identity with the motive of converting her to Islam upon marriage. The fact that the perpetrator donned a Hindu religious symbol and chose to marry her in a Hindu temple, according to Hindu traditions, points towards the fact that he wanted to specifically target the victim because of her religious identity as a Hindu. The Muslim perpetrator targeted the victim specifically owing to her religious identity and after that, tried to forcefully change her religious identity to Islam pointing towards a crime with his motivations being driven by religious hate.
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 5 to 10
Perpetrators Gender
male
Sources 
