Shoaib Akhtar beheads his friend Ejaz’s Hindu wife for not converting to Islam

Case ID : 0b6755a | Location : Sonbhadra, Uttar Pradesh, India | Date of Incident : Sun, 27 September, 2020

Case ID : 0b6755a

Sonbhadra, Uttar Pradesh, India

27 September, 2020

Shoaib Akhtar beheads his friend Ejaz’s Hindu wife for not converting to Islam

Crimes against women in relationships and other sexual crimes

Murder upon refusal to convert

Forced conversion after marriage

Attack resulting in death

Attacked for refusal to convert

Case Summary

In Sonbhadra, Uttar Pradesh, a 23-year-old Hindu woman, Priya Soni, was brutally murdered by two Muslim men, Ejaz Ahmed and Shoaib Akhtar, after she refused to convert to Islam following her marriage to Ejaz. Priya's beheaded body was found in a forest near Preet Nagar. Her father identified her based on her clothes and shoes. Priya had married Ejaz Ahmed against her family's wishes. However, Ejaz continuously pressured her to convert to Islam, which she refused. In anger, Ejaz and his friend Shoaib took her to the forest and murdered her. The police later apprehended the two men and recovered incriminating evidence, including a knife, iron rod, and Priya's mobile phone. Priya's sister, Sharmila, revealed that Priya had been under constant pressure to convert. While Ejaz Ahmed was initially granted bail in October 2023, it was revealed that the court had overlooked a previous rejection of Shoaib's bail plea in January 2023. The court has since denied Shoaib's bail and ordered the trial to be expedited, with several witnesses already having testified.

Why it is Hate Crime ?

This case has been added under the prime category- Hate Crimes against women in relationship and sexual crimes. Further, as per case details, the case has been placed under two sub-categories. The first sub-category selected here is- Forced conversion after marriage- 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. The second sub-category selected here is- Murder upon refusal to convert- When Hindu women are in a relationship with non-Hindu men, there are cases where the woman is forced to convert her religion and upon her refusal to do so, the non-Hindu partner murders the victim. Such relationships may be consensual with the religious identity of the non-Hindu man known to the victim. Somewhere along the relationship, the non-Hindu man starts pressuring the Hindu woman to convert. In some of these cases, the association could be non-consensual as well or, the religious identity of the non-Muslim man could be previously unknown to the Hindu victim. In such cases, the Hindu woman is first pressurized to change her religion by the non-Hindu man. The pressure could involve threats and/or violence. The trigger to murdering the woman in these cases is her refusal to comply and change her religion under threat and/or force. Such cases are driven by specific religious motivations and against the religious identity of the victim and are therefore qualified as hate crimes. IIn this case, there is no indication that the Muslim accused hid his identity. Typically, in such situations, the woman is likely led to believe that her faith would not be an obstacle to their relationship. Here, the Hindu woman, trusting the accused's assurances, married the Muslim man. However, after the marriage, he began pressuring her to convert to Islam. When the Hindu woman refused to comply with the demand for conversion, her Muslim husband, with the help of his friend, brutally beheaded her. Her refusal to embrace Islam became the central issue that provoked the Muslim perpetrator's violent reaction. This act is not merely a gruesome crime but an extreme and violent manifestation of religiously motivated hate, deeply rooted in religious intolerance and bigotry. It represents a symbolic attempt to erase her identity as a Hindu woman who courageously resisted forced conversion. Such violent actions are brutal efforts to impose religious conformity, showing a complete disregard for the victim's religious freedom and her right to practice her faith. The use of such extreme violence to enforce religious affinity underscores the perpetrator's profound hatred and intolerance toward the victim's faith and beliefs, which is why this case has been added to the hate tracker.