Muslim youth pretends to be Hindu, pressurises victim to convert after assuring her she could remain Hindu after marriage, gang-rapes her with his friends Nauman, Faisal, Wasim
Indore, Madhya Pradesh, India 
11 June, 2024
Case Summary
In Madhya Pradesh’s Indore, a Muslim youth named Shahid duped a Hindu girl into marrying him by hiding his real identity. The perpetrator impregnated the girl, then fled for a year, only to return and gang-rape her with his friends. In addition, the Hindu girl was under persistent pressure to convert to Islam. The police have arrested all of the accused. A 24-year-old woman reported to the Kanadia police station that she met Shahid through a call centre, where he posed as a Hindu named Raj and started a romantic relationship with her. She discovered his true identity when she visited his home. Shahid assured her she did not need to convert to Islam and convinced her they could be together while she remained Hindu. The victim had a son with Shahid, who was given a Muslim name. She recounted frequent beatings by Shahid, his mother Shabnam, and his sister Sania Ahmed. Shahid had been away for a year, and upon his return, he brought friends Nauman Khan, Faisal Khan and Wasim Akhtar, who drugged her and gang-raped her. Shahid and his family also attempted to force her to convert to Islam. After this, her family and representatives of Hindu organisations urged the police to take action.
Why it is Hate Crime ?
The first factor that gives this case a distinct religious angle is that the Muslim perpetrator actively hid his religion and pretended to be a Hindu to ensnare the Hindu woman. 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 second factor that gives this case a distinct religious angle is that the Muslim perpetrator forced the victim to convert to Islam. In such cases, a non-Hindu man marries a Hindu woman and the force/pressure to convert to Islam begins after marriage. In such cases, the marriage is consensual in most cases and often, there is no element of the man hiding his religious identity. The marriage could be under the Special Marriages Act where neither parties are required to convert their religion for the marriage to be considered legitimate. While the victim in such cases enters matrimony assuming that religious identity is not a barrier, the non-Hindu man starts to pressure the woman to convert to Islam after marriage. In such cases, there is application of force by the perpetrator, including, denial of the woman’s religious rights. Some of the means by which the woman is forced/pressured to convert include force-feeding beef, forced to read the Kalma, forced to wear a hijab, forced for Halala, etc. There are several instances where after marriage, the woman voluntarily converts to Islam. Such cases are often argued to be a result of religious brainwashing, however, for the purpose of documenting religiously motivated hate crimes, in the absence of the victim complaining of forced conversion, such cases do not form a part of the database. In this case, the Muslim accused firstly hid his religion to trap the Hindu girl. This is a clear manifestation of bias and malicious intent towards the victim's religion. Further, when his identity was revealed upon the victim he promised that their religious identities would not be a hindrance in their relationship, however, the Muslim man started applying pressure on the victim to convert to Islam and follow Islamic principles against her will. He also inflicted torture on her, like getting her raped by his friends, when she refused to accede to his demands, 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 0
- Adult 1
- Senior Citizen 0
- Unknown 0
Case Status
Arrested
Perpetrators Details
Perpetrators
Muslim Extremists
Perpetrators Range
From 5 to 10
Perpetrators Gender
both
Sources 
