Praveen Khan guises as Badal and traps minor Hindu girl, attempts to convert her
Mathura, Uttar Pradesh, India 
19 September, 2024
Case Summary
In Mathura, Uttar Pradesh, a Muslim youth, Praveen Khan, deceived a minor Hindu girl by changing his name to "Badal" and attempted to convert her. The girl's family filed an FIR, prompting the police to begin an investigation. The girl's family from Kataila village, Thana Raya area, stated that Praveen Khan befriended their daughter under the false identity of Badal and trapped her in a love affair. They stated he attempted to kidnap her with the intent to marry and convert her. A case was registered against Praveen Khan and his family, but neither the girl nor the accused had been found at the time. On September 20, 2024, members of Hindu organizations, led by the Hindu Mahasabha's District President, Chhaya Gautam, gheraoed the Raya police station, protesting the delay in the girl's recovery. The police, acknowledging the seriousness of the case, formed special investigation teams and assured the community that efforts were underway to recover the girl as soon as possible.
Why it is Hate Crime ?
This case has been added to the hate tracker under the prime category of Hate crimes against women in relationships and sexual crimes. Under this, two sub-categories have been selected, as per case details. The first is- Man pretends to be Hindu, within which, the tertiary category selected is 'Name changed'. When a non-Hindu man pretends to be a Hindu to deceive a Hindu woman into a relationship, the act is seen as triggered by malafide intentions. In some cases, the woman eventually accepts the man’s original religious identity and converts after the man’s identity is revealed. These cases could be argued as cases of religious brainwashing and a result of the pressure a woman feels after getting into a relationship with a man. The woman, it can be argued, also changed her religious identity because of the stigma she believes she might face if she chooses to walk out of a deceptive relationship. However, for the purpose of documenting hate crimes, the cases in this subcategory are limited to those where there is explicit violence aimed at religious conversion against the wishes of the victim (force-feeding beef, blackmailing with intimate videos, rape on refusal to convert, etc), or if the woman herself complains of the man’s religious deception. In such cases, it is established that the deception of the non-Hindu man had a specific aim of religious conversion or targeting of the victim due to her Hindu religious identity, therefore, making it a religiously motivated hate crime. The second sub-category under which this case has been placed is- Brainwashed and/or groomed and within this, the tertiary category named 'Family claims grooming of minor' has also been selected. In our database, we have not added incidents where women have converted to another religion of their free will and no allegations of forced/involuntary conversion have been made. However, there are certain cases of conversion where the consent itself is a result of the brainwashing or grooming of a minor by the non-Hindu perpetrator trying to victimise a woman for her Hindu religious identity. The phenomenon of grooming points to non-Hindu perpetrators identifying their Hindu victims’ vulnerabilities and exploiting them over months and sometimes years, to extract the supposed ‘consent’ in order to convert their religion. In most cases of grooming, the victims are minors or the grooming started when the victim was a minor. In other cases of grooming, the non-Hindu perpetrator brainwashes and grooms a minor victim to extract their trust and then proceeds to rape them repeatedly with the intent of converting them to their faith. It is pertinent to understand here that when the victim is a minor, the ‘consent’ to convert or enter into a romantic relationship with an adult itself is redundant – addressed by POCSO. While every case of conversion of a minor and incidents of establishing a physical relationship with a minor by an adult is a crime, for the purpose of this database, a case would be considered a hate crime only if there is a distinct religious angle to the grooming. For example, in the UK, if a Hindu minor is targeted by Pakistani grooming gangs, it would be considered a hate crime because the victims are specifically targeted owing to their non-Muslim religious identity with the perpetrators being Muslim. In other cases, if a Hindu minor is brainwashed into entering a physical relationship with the non-Hindu adult perpetrator and the family alleges grooming/brainwashing of the minor to convert her religion, it would form a part of this database. If the victim is a Hindu adult, the case would form a part of this database only if the victim herself says that she was brainwashed/groomed to convert her religion. However, if the victim is deceased (murdered or otherwise), the case would form a part of this database if her family/friends provided testimony that the victim was brainwashed/groomed to convert her religion. Since these crimes have a distinct religious angle where the victim is being targeted owing to her Hindu religious identity, these cases are considered hate crimes. The distinct element in this particular case that demonstrates that the Muslim perpetrator committed the crime while harbouring a bias against the Hindu faith is that he pretended to be a Hindu to deceive the victim. Thereafter, the religious motive of the crime became more apparent when the accused forcefully converted the victim, who, in this case, was a minor, to Islam. Since the Hindu victim was a minor, the element of consent and genuine change of conscience was missing ab initio. Minors, due to their young age and lack of maturity, are particularly vulnerable to manipulation and coercion. They may not have the ability to fully understand the implications of converting to another religion and the Muslim perpetrator purposely targeted and exploited this vulnerability of the victim. Since the religious motive of the crime is evident from these facts, this case has been documented 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
Complaint registered
Perpetrators Details
Perpetrators
Muslim Extremists
Perpetrators Range
One Person
Perpetrators Gender
male
Sources 
