Aman Qureshi kidnaps, converts and marries a married Hindu woman named Sandhya, issues death threats to victim's family

Case ID : 0b67795 | Location : Bakewar, Uttar Pradesh, India | Date of Incident : Wed, 8 May, 2024

Case ID : 0b67795

Bakewar, Uttar Pradesh, India

8 May, 2024

Aman Qureshi kidnaps, converts and marries a married Hindu woman named Sandhya, issues death threats to victim's family

Predatory Proselytisation

Harassment, threats, coercion for conversion

Proselytisation by grooming, brainwashing, manipulation or subtle indoctrination

Pattern of targeting Hindus

Case Summary

In Bakewar, Uttar Pradesh, a married Hindu woman named Sandhya was kidnapped, converted to Islam, and married off to a man named Aman Qureshi, who then renamed her Shabnam. Sandhya's father reported that Aman, who had been frequenting their area for his animal trade, took his daughter from their home on May 9 when the family was away. Villagers witnessed Aman taking her but were told to forget about Sandhya as she had converted and married Aman. The family was threatened with death if they pursued her. Despite reporting the incident to the police in June, no action was taken, prompting the family to seek help from the court. A case has been registered against Aman Qureshi, his father Abrar Qureshi, Abrar's wife Mobina, Nafees Qureshi, and a Maulvi. The girl's father accuses Abrar of masterminding the conversion, saying that he and his associates lure girls, convert them in Fatehpur, and marry them off under their religion. The police are investigating the case.

Why it is Hate Crime ?

This case has been added to the hate tracker under the prime category- Predatory Proselytisation. Further, as per case details, two sub-categories under the abovementioned category have been selected here. The first is- 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. 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. The second sub-category relevant here is- Proselytisation by brainwashing, manipulation or subtle indoctrination- under which the tertiary category- Pattern of targeting Hindu women/minors has been selected. Proselytisation by brainwashing, manipulation or subtle indoctrination: Religious brainwashing essentially means the often subtle and forcible indoctrination to induce someone to give up their religious beliefs to accept contrasting regimented ideas. Religious brainwashing also involves propaganda and manipulation. It involves the systematic effort, driven by religious malice and indoctrination, to persuade “non-believers’ to accept allegiance, command, or doctrine to and of a contrasting faith. Cases of such brainwashing are far more nuanced than direct threats, coercion, inducement and violence. In such cases, it is often seen that there is repeated, subtle and continual manipulation of the victim to induce disaffection towards their own faith and acceptance of the contrasting faith of the perpetrator. While subtle indoctrination is widely acknowledged as predatory, an element which is often understated in such conversions or the attempts of such conversion is the role of loyalty and trust which might develop between the perpetrator and the victim. Fiduciary relationships are often abused to affect such religious conversion. For example, an educator transmitting religious doctrine of a competing faith to a Hindu student. The Hindu student is likely to accept what the teacher is transmitting owing to existence of the fiduciary relationship. The exploitation of the fiduciary relationship to religiously indoctrinate victims would also be included in this category. Since the underlying animosity towards the victim’s faith forms the basis of predatory proselytization, such cases are considered religiously motivated hate crimes. Here, the Muslim youth kidnapped a married Hindu woman and forced her to convert to Islam and perform Nikah with him. The act of forcibly converting the victim from Hinduism to Islam is a direct attack on her religious freedom and identity, demonstrating a profound disregard for her autonomy and beliefs. Moreover, the fact that Aman Qureshi issued death threats to Sandhya's family highlights the use of fear and intimidation to suppress any resistance to this forced conversion and marriage. Such threats are indicative of a broader intent to silence the victim's family thereby ensuring the dominance of the perpetrator's religious ideology. This crime is religiously motivated because it targets the victim based on her religious background, aiming to convert her forcibly and thereby alter her fundamental identity. The violence and coercion involved in the process further emphasize the hostility and animosity towards the victim's original faith, making it a hate crime rooted in religious intolerance. Further, the involvement of Aman Qureshi's father, Abrar Qureshi, in masterminding the conversion of Sandhya adds a disturbing layer to the crime, further emphasizing its religiously motivated nature.According to the girl's father, Abrar Qureshi and his associates actively lure Hindu women, forcibly convert them in Fatehpur, and then marry them off according to Islamic customs. This accusation points to a systematic pattern of targeting Hindu women, with the intention of erasing their religious and cultural identities. This pattern highlights the deep-seated animosity towards Hinduism and reflects an attempt to assert religious dominance through the victimization of vulnerable women. Since the motivating factor of the crime was the religious identity of the victim and the intention to disenfranchise her from it, the case has been included in the hate tracker.