Hindu man found dead in Muslim girlfriend's house; Kadar, Shahrukh, Sarvesh among 5 accused of murder due to his interfaith affair

Case ID : 0b677a2 | Location : Hardoi, Uttar Pradesh, India | Date of Incident : Sun, 18 August, 2024

Case ID : 0b677a2

Hardoi, Uttar Pradesh, India

18 August, 2024

Hindu man found dead in Muslim girlfriend's house; Kadar, Shahrukh, Sarvesh among 5 accused of murder due to his interfaith affair

Men attacked for being associated with non-Hindu women

Killed by non-Hindu partner's family

Attack resulting in death

Attacked for Hindu identity

Case Summary

In Hardoi district, Uttar Pradesh, a Hindu man named Gaurav Singh, 28, was found dead at the house of his Muslim girlfriend on August 19, 2024. A pistol and knife were discovered near his body. Gaurav's brother, Akhilesh Singh, accused five villagers, Sarvesh Khan, Kadar, Shahrukh, Karim, and Ijad of killing him due to his interfaith love affair with the Muslim girl whose family opposed the relationship. Gaurav, a cook living in Jaipur, had previously eloped with the Muslim girl, leading to his arrest after her family accused him of kidnapping. After spending a month in jail, he returned to the city, only to be found dead at his girlfriend's house.

Why it is Hate Crime ?

This case has been added to the hate tracker under the prime category- Killed by non-Hindu partner's family- When Hindu men are in a relationship with non-Hindu women, there are cases where the man is forced/pressured to convert his religion and upon his refusal to do so, the family of the non-Hindu partner murders the victim. Such relationships may be consensual with the religious identity of the non-Hindu woman known to the victim. Somewhere along the relationship, the non-Hindu woman and her family start forcing/pressurizing the Hindu man to convert. In some of these cases, the association could be non-consensual as well or, the religious identity of the non-Muslim woman could be previously unknown to the Hindu victim. In such cases, the Hindu man is first forced/pressurized to change his religion by the non-Hindu woman’s family. The pressure could involve threats. The trigger to murdering the Hindu man in these cases is his refusal to comply and change his religion under threat and/or force. In other cases that have been documented, it is also seen that the Hindu partner is murdered by the family of the non-Hindu woman simply for his relationship with the non-Hindu woman and by virtue of him following the Hindu faith and not the religion of the non-Hindu woman. In such cases, the relationship is consensual in most cases and the religion of both partners is known to the other. Often, in such cases, there is no direct force/pressure to convert either, however, the murder is a result of the Hindu man being in a relationship with the non-Hindu partner and not following her religion/following Hinduism specifically. Such cases are driven by specific religious motivations and against the religious identity of the victim and are therefore qualified as hate crimes. Here, the Hindu victim's brother accused a group of Muslim men of killing his brother due to his interfaith love affair with the Muslim girl whose family opposed the relationship. This case becomes worthy of being documented as a religiously motivated hate crime because the Hindu man was killed for being in a relationship with a Muslim girl. In this case, the relationship was consensual and the man and woman were with each other knowing each other’s identity fully well. However, in the Islamic faith, a marriage is deemed illegitimate if the non-Muslim partner does not convert to Islam. For those who practice the faith, when their daughter marries a Hindu man without the man converting to Islam, the difference in religions followed becomes the main point of disapproval for the family of the Muslim woman. Because of the ingrained element of religious supremacy in Islam, the perpetrator family believes that such interfaith relationships diminish the family’s ‘honour’. In this case also, the inherent animosity for the Hindu religion prompted the family of the Muslim girl to, at first entrap the Hindu boy in a false kidnapping case and then go to the extent of killing him, making this case worthy of being documented in the tracker.