Muslim man and his family threaten Hindu girl to marry, convert to Islam, victim commits suicide
Indore, Madhya Pradesh, India 
18 April, 2023
Case Summary
Asmat met an 18-year-old Hindu girl in his college and later developed a friendship with her. He then forced her to get married to him and accept Islam and also threatened that he would abduct her if she doesn’t agree. The girl informed about Asmat to her father who warned him and his family members, Haider, Shabbir and Shahjahan to stay away from the girl. However, Asmat issued threats to the father of the girl and said that he wanted to marry her and would abduct her if she doesn’t agree. He also pressured her and used to send her derogatory messages on her phone. The father then took possession of the phone and happened to delete the messages. Asmat, after knowing this, accessed the contact of the girl’s uncle and continued to send derogatory messages. The girl felt pressured by the continuous terrorization and decided to end her life to end the saga. She consumed poison and was declared dead after she was immediately taken to the hospital by her family members. State police arrested Asmat Patel, his father Shabbir Ali and his brother Haider Ali for forcing a Hindu girl to commit suicide. The mother, Shahjahan was absconding.
Why it is Hate Crime ?
This case has been added to the primary category 'crimes against women in relationship and other sexual crimes'. Under this, several sub-categories have been chosen owing to the various components of the crime. The first sub-category is forced conversion before marriage. In such cases, a non-Hindu man is in a relationship with a Hindu woman when the pressure to convert her religion begins to manifest. The relationship in such cases is mostly consensual and the religious identity of the perpetrator is known to the Hindu woman in the relationship, however, at some point during the relationship, the non-Hindu man starts to force the victim to convert her religion and give up her Hindu religious identity. In such cases, the methods used to force the victim to convert her religion often revolve around force-feeding beef, forcing her to wear hijab, forcing her to read the Kalma or even pressurizing the victim to do ‘Nikah’, which is marriage under Islamic law, with a prerequisite being conversion to Islam. Cases where a Hindu woman consensually converts to Islam in a relationship will be left out of the hate crime database, even though it could be argued in several cases that the conversion was a result of religious brainwashing. The second sub-category is 'Assault or threat upon refusal to convert'. When Hindu women are in a relationship with non-Hindu men, there are cases where the woman faces threats or assault after she refuses to convert and change her religious identity owing to pressure/force by the non-Hindu man. 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 pressurizing the Hindu woman to convert to Islam and upon her refusal, assaults or threatens the victim. Such cases are driven by specific religious motivations and against the religious identity of the victim and are therefore qualified as hate crimes. Cases where the Hindu woman converts to Islam and does not file a complaint about the force or threat, are not considered a part of the hate tracker, even though, it may be argued that the woman was brainwashed or threatened to convert to Islam. The third sub-category is 'Torture of family to force woman 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. Several methods are used for such forced conversion. The non-Hindu man is often documented to issue threats and even employ violence. One of the ways used by such perpetrators is threatening and/or torturing the family members of the Hindu woman to pressure her to convert. The perpetrators in such cases issue threats to harm or torture the family of the woman. In some cases, there is also violence directed towards the family to force the Hindu woman to convert. Such crimes aim to blackmail the victim into changing her religion by inducing fear of harm to her family. Such cases are driven by specific religious motivations and against the religious identity of the victim and are therefore qualified as hate crimes. The fourth sub-category is 'Suicide for being forced or pressured to convert'. When Hindu women are in a relationship with a non-Hindu men, there are cases where the woman faces pressure/threats/violence to convert and change her religious identity by the non-Hindu man. 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 pressurizing the Hindu woman to convert. In some of these cases, unable to bear the pressure/threat/violence being mounted by the non-Hindu partner to convert, the Hindu woman commits suicide. In such cases, often, threats are also given to the family members of the Hindu woman. Since such cases are driven by specific religious motivations and against the religious identity of the victim, leading to the woman committing suicide, these cases are categorized as a hate crime. In this case, there are several elements that prove that it was the religiously motivated hate crime which led to the Hindu woman committing suicide. The woman was being forced to convert to Islam and marry the perpetrator and wen she refused to do so, she was being threatened. In order to pressure the woman to convert to Islam, the perpetrator and the family of the perpetrator was also threatening the girl's father. The Muslim perpetrator to further pressure the woman to convert and marry him also sent obscene and threatening messages to her relatives. The aim of this assault was to disenfranchise the Hindu woman from practising her professed faith and convert to another faith. Such acts stem from religious animosity and since force, threats and harassment was deployed to convert the woman to Islam, it can be concluded that the victim was specifically profiled on the basis of her religious identity and the religious fanaticism of the perpetrator was the motivating factor behind his actions. It was the harassment that then led the woman to take her own life. Since such acts are driven by hostility towards the faith of the victim, the case is being documented as a religiously motivated hate crime.
Victim Details
Total Victim
1
Deceased
1
Gender
- Male 0
- Female 1
- Third Gender 0
- Unknown 0
Caste
- SC/ST 0
- OBC 0
- General 0
- Unknown 1
Age Group
- Minor 0
- Adult 1
- Senior Citizen 0
- Unknown 0
Case Status
Arrested
Perpetrators Details
Perpetrators
Muslim Extremists
Perpetrators Range
From 2 To 5
Perpetrators Gender
both
Sources 
