Muslim man abducts Hindu minor, holds her hostage in Surat, gang-rapes her, forces her to convert, booked
Banda, Uttar Pradesh, India 
13 May, 2023
Case Summary
In Banda district of Uttar Pradesh, a 16-year-old Hindu girl was kidnapped by man named Guddu Muslim when she had gone to buy vegetables. He made her inhale intoxicating substances, took her while she was unconscious to Gujarat, held her hostage and gang-raped her for 15 days along with two of his friends. The victim was also pressurised for religious conversion and marriage. She was also threatened to be sold if she did not obey. A Muslim woman is reportedly the mastermind of this conspiracy. During interrogation, the victim revealed that a Muslim woman living in her locality often used to call her. She introduced the victim to a young man, Guddu, working at a readymade shop. The Muslim woman often made them talk through her mobile phone. Within a few days of their acquaintance, the girl had changed her WhatsApp profile photo to a picture of a Sheikh-looking Muslim man pointing an umbrella at a minor girl. Police recovered the girl from Surat on May 30, 2023. The accused fled the scene when they saw the police.
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, the sub-category chosen under the abovementioned prime category 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. In this case, the Hindu minor girl was abducted and kept in confinement. This itself is a severe form of intimidation. Then she was put through unfathomable physical torture by her perpetrators. The purpose behind the violence employed was to coerce the victim to abandon her faith and accept Islam. The underlying motivation of predatory proselytisation itself is animosity towards the professed faith of the victim. In this case, there was violence involved in the pressure exerted to forcefully convert the Hindu girl. Moreover, the central aim of the perpetrators was to disenfranchise the Hindu girl from her professed faith. Since the central motivation is religion, this case has been added as a hate crime.
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 1
- Adult 0
- Senior Citizen 0
- Unknown 0
Case Status
Case sub-judice
Perpetrators Details
Perpetrators
Muslim Extremists
Perpetrators Range
From 2 To 5
Perpetrators Gender
both
Sources 
