Married Muslim man holds Hindu woman hostage for 3 years, rapes her, forces her to convert to Islam and consume beef

Case ID : 388c072 | Location : Gwalior, Madhya Pradesh, India | Date of Incident : Wed, 24 April, 2024

Case ID : 388c072

Gwalior, Madhya Pradesh, India

24 April, 2024

Married Muslim man holds Hindu woman hostage for 3 years, rapes her, forces her to convert to Islam and consume beef

Crimes against women in relationships and other sexual crimes

Forced conversion before marriage

Assault or threat upon refusal to convert

Rape for refusal to convert

Case Summary

A married man named Sabir Khan from Gwalior, Madhya Pradesh, was accused of blackmailing a Hindu girl into having a relationship with him after his marriage and holding her captive for over three years. The 27-year-old victim filed a complaint at the Bahodapur police station on April 26, 2024. Sabir Khan, who lived near the victim's house, initially approached her in October 2021 when he was unmarried. After developing a friendship, they communicated regularly. However, after Sabir got married, the victim ended their friendship, but he persisted in approaching her. Sabir threatened suicide, implicating the victim's father and brother if she did not comply with his demands. Fearing for her family's safety, the victim continued to communicate with him. On one occasion, Sabir threatened to kill her when she refused to go with him. He forcibly took her to Ramaji culvert (Puliya) where he sexually harassed and assaulted her. Sabir also pressured her to convert to Islam, subjected her to physical assaults, and deprived her of food. He forced her to eat beef and engaged in unnatural acts with her. On April 25, Sabir's father and brother, along with his wife and mother, entered the victim's house, assaulted her, and attempted to kill her. Fortunately, the landlord intervened and saved her life. With the help of workers from the Hindu Jagran Manch, the victim and her family filed a complaint at the Bahodapur police station. An FIR has been registered against Sabir Khan, his father Yusuf Khan, and his brother Sameer Khan.

Why it is Hate Crime ?

This case has also been added to 'Hate crimes against women in relationship' category under three sub-categories, since the woman was in a relationship with the Muslim perpetrator before his marriage. A hate crime is supposed to have taken place when the perpetrator intentionally targets an individual owing to his/her bias against a certain characteristic of that individual or his/her declared hatred towards that characteristic. A religious hate crime is one where the offence is committed against an individual or a group or an individual or a group of people are targeted specifically because of their religious identity. In cases where religiously motivated hate crimes against Hindu women in relationships are committed, it is seen that the perpetrator targets the victim specifically because of her religious identity of being a Hindu and is therefore a hate crime. In this category, we would also add cases where women have been subjected to sexual crimes owing to religious hate/animosity,, but were not in a relationship with the perpetrator. In such cases, there would have to be a specific marker of religious animosity as a motivation for the crime. For example, grooming young Hindu girls for sexual exploitation with the non-Hindu perpetrator targeting Hindu girls specifically, non-Hindu perpetrator targeting Hindu women as a pattern, or, for example, rape as a weapon used against women with religious hate as the motivation. Since the religious identity of the victim is the primary marker owing to which the perpetrator targeted the victim, it would be considered a religiously motivated hate crime. In this case, the Hindu woman was kept in illegal confinement for three long years, which itself is a severe form of intimidation. Then she was put through unfathomable physical torture by her perpetrators. She was raped and forced to have unnatural sex by the accused. The perpetrator further employed intimidatory tactics like feeding her beef, a taboo in Hinduism. The purpose behind the violence and intimidation 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. Further, 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.