Minor Hindu girls elope burqa-clad with Muslim auto drivers in Jaunpur; Waseem, Amjad, Zeeshan arrested
Jaunpur, Uttar Pradesh, India 
1 July, 2024
Case Summary
On July 2 in Jaunpur, Uttar Pradesh, two Hindu girls, both minors, eloped with three Muslim men but were safely recovered by police in Varanasi. The girls were found wearing burqas at the time of their recovery. The accused men, identified as Mohammad Waseem, Amjad, and Zeeshan, have been arrested, and the girls have been returned to their families. The incident was reported by the fathers of the victims, Deep Chandra Chaurasiya and Deepak Dixit, after their 15-year-old daughters, who are classmates, did not return home from school. A First Information Report was filed at the Kerakat police station, and local CCTV footage showed the girls getting into an auto-rickshaw before they became untraceable.
Why it is Hate Crime ?
In our database, we have not added incidents where women have converted to another religion of their free will and no allegations of forced/involuntary conversion have been made. However, there are certain cases of conversion where the consent itself is a result of the brainwashing or grooming of a minor by the non-Hindu perpetrator trying to victimise a woman for her Hindu religious identity. The phenomenon of grooming points to non-Hindu perpetrators identifying their Hindu victims’ vulnerabilities and exploiting them over months and sometimes years, to extract the supposed ‘consent’ in order to convert their religion. In most cases of grooming, the victims are minors or the grooming started when the victim was a minor. In other cases of grooming, the non-Hindu perpetrator brainwashes and grooms a minor victim to extract their trust and then proceeds to rape them repeatedly with the intent of converting them to their faith. It is pertinent to understand here that when the victim is a minor, the ‘consent’ to convert or enter into a romantic relationship with an adult itself is redundant – addressed by POCSO. While every case of conversion of a minor and incidents of establishing a physical relationship with a minor by an adult is a crime, for the purpose of this database, a case would be considered a hate crime only if there is a distinct religious angle to the grooming. For example, in the UK, if a Hindu minor is targeted by Pakistani grooming gangs, it would be considered a hate crime because the victims are specifically targeted owing to their non-Muslim religious identity with the perpetrators being Muslim. In other cases, if a Hindu minor is brainwashed into entering a physical relationship with the non-Hindu adult perpetrator and the family alleges grooming/brainwashing of the minor to convert her religion, it would form a part of this database. If the victim is a Hindu adult, the case would form a part of this database only if the victim herself says that she was brainwashed/groomed to convert her religion. However, if the victim is deceased (murdered or otherwise), the case would form a part of this database if her family/friends provided testimony that the victim was brainwashed/groomed to convert her religion. Since these crimes have a distinct religious angle where the victim is being targeted owing to her Hindu religious identity, these cases are considered a hate crime. In several cases, a minor is groomed and brainwashed by non-Hindu perpetrators to later convert their religion. In many of these cases, the perpetrators claim that the victim provided her consent for the 'relationship' and the ensuing conversion of faith. However, minors, are brainwashed, and groomed to elope and convert, mostly to Islam, and are not legally capable of providing consent for conversion of faith. Also, it is the very definition of grooming that minors, who are easy to brainwash, are targeted specifically for the purpose of conversion of their religion, and because compared to adult women, manipulating minors is easier. Such victims are often profiled on the basis of their religion. Since conversion is the very basis of the targeting of minor, such crimes are being classified as religiously motivated hate crimes under this category. In this case, two minor Hindu girls 'eloped' with the Muslim perpetrator and when they were recovered, they were found wearing Burqas. It is, therefore, evident that the crime had an element of conversion of the minor's faith and that the minor was targeted specifically owing to her religious identity. Therefore, this crime is being categorized as a religiously motivated hate crime.
Victim Details
Total Victim
2
Deceased
0
Gender
- Male 0
- Female 2
- Third Gender 0
- Unknown 0
Caste
- SC/ST 0
- OBC 0
- General 0
- Unknown 2
Age Group
- Minor 2
- Adult 0
- Senior Citizen 0
- Unknown 0
Case Status
Arrested
Perpetrators Details
Perpetrators
Muslim Extremists
Perpetrators Range
From 2 To 5
Perpetrators Gender
male
Sources 
