Nepali Hindu girl trapped into marriage by Muslim taxi driver posing as Hindu; rapes her at gunpoint, force feeds beef, threatens to kill her
Pilibhit, Uttar Pradesh, India 
8 September, 2024
Case Summary
In Pilibhit district, Uttar Pradesh, a Nepali Hindu girl from Dhangarhi accused Amjad Khan of deceiving her by using a fake name, Ajay, to trap her into marriage and later harass her. A total of five people, including Amjad, his mother, and his brother, were named in the FIR filed on September 9, 2024. Amjad was later arrested. The victim stated that in 2013 while working in Dhangarhi, Nepal, she met Amjad, who introduced himself as Ajay and frequently travelled between Nepal and India as a taxi driver. Over time, Amjad earned her trust and shared his mobile number, eventually persuading her to come to India with promises of a better job. Upon arriving in India, she was taken to Amjad's brother-in-law, Wahid Khan's house in Kalimnagar, Pilibhit. Here, Amjad began molesting the victim and pressuring her to marry him. Initially, the victim resisted his advances, but Amjad later attempted to approach her at night while she was asleep. He put a gun to the victim’s face and raped her. After the rape, he threatened to kill the victim if she told anyone. When the victim complained about this to Amjad’s sister, she replied laughingly, “You are so beautiful. How long can that poor guy control himself?” Amjad raped the victim several times after this. Whenever the victim spoke about returning to Nepal, she was threatened. Amjad later moved her to his aunt’s house, where his mother, Kaiser Jahan, his sister, Sonam, and his brother, Nafees, presented her with an ultimatum: either marry Amjad or face death. At this point, the victim realised Amjad was Muslim, not Hindu. Fearful for her life, she agreed to the marriage. The victim revealed that during the marriage, she was forced to sign documents without being allowed to read them. After the court marriage, instead of being taken back by Amjad, she was placed in a room where a 35-year-old man, Firoz Khan, entered. Firoz, Amjad’s elder brother and a widower with four children, was the man she had unknowingly married. She later found herself forcibly converted to Islam, renamed "Mahroon Nisha," and pressured to eat beef. When she resisted, she was brutally beaten by Firoz, his brothers Amjad and Changez Khan, and Firoz’s son, Rangeela. The abuse continued over the years, with the victim giving birth to two children while being regularly assaulted. Firoz, a drug addict, would rape her constantly, while Changez harassed her by spying on her in the bathroom and bringing young Hindu and Sikh girls home. The victim also stated that various Maulanas visited regularly, bringing gifts and reinforcing her captivity. Changez and his family seized control of the victim’s money, leaving her financially helpless. In 2022, the situation escalated when Changez and Amjad attacked the victim with a sword. She narrowly escaped and fled to Nepal. She filed a complaint with the police in Pilibhit, naming Amjad, Firoz, Changez, Rangeela, and their mother as the accused. The police registered a case under several sections of the IPC.
Why it is Hate Crime ?
This case encompasses multiple aspects of a religiously motivated hate crime and therefore has been placed under three sub-categories within the prime category- Hate crimes against women in relationships and sexual crimes. The first sub-category relevant here is- Man pretends to be Hindu, under which two tertiary categories- 'name changed' and 'raped after Hindu woman finds out real identity' have also been selected. 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- Forced conversion after marriage and within this, two tertiary categories, namely, 'forced to eat beef' and 'forced to do Nikah' have also been selected. In such cases, a non-Hindu man marries a Hindu woman and the force/pressure to convert to Islam begins after marriage. In such cases, the marriage is consensual in most cases and often, there is no element of the man hiding his religious identity. The marriage could be under the Special Marriages Act where neither parties are required to convert their religion for the marriage to be considered legitimate. While the victim in such cases enters matrimony assuming that religious identity is not a barrier, the non-Hindu man starts to pressure the woman to convert to Islam after marriage. In such cases, there is application of force by the perpetrator, including, denial of the woman’s religious rights. Some of the means by which the woman is forced/pressured to convert include force-feeding beef, forced to read the Kalma, forced to wear a hijab, forced for Halala, etc. There are several instances where after marriage, the woman voluntarily converts to Islam. Such cases are often argued to be a result of religious brainwashing, however, for the purpose of documenting religiously motivated hate crimes, in the absence of the victim complaining of forced conversion, such cases do not form a part of the database. Likewise, the third sub-category under which this case has been placed 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. This case exemplifies several facets of a religiously motivated hate crime, showcasing a deliberate and systematic attempt to manipulate and control the victim's identity and autonomy. Initially, the perpetrator, Amjad Khan, deceitfully presented himself as a Hindu by adopting the name "Ajay," thereby betraying the trust of the Nepali Hindu girl he targeted. This deception was a calculated strategy to ensnare her in a relationship and ultimately lead her to a forced marriage, where her religious beliefs were disregarded. Following the marriage, the victim was coerced into converting to Islam and given a new name, "Mahroon Nisha," signifying a complete erasure of her Hindu identity. Moreover, the imposition of Islamic practices upon her, such as being forced to eat beef—an act contrary to her Hindu faith—illustrates a blatant disregard for her personal beliefs and a desire to enforce conformity through humiliation and control. The forced Nikah, or Islamic marriage ceremony, further highlights the lengths to which the perpetrator went to strip her of her religious identity, as she was pressured into accepting this new identity against her will. The heinous acts of rape and assault that followed her refusal to convert demonstrate the extreme violence employed to obliterate her religious identity. This multi-layered abuse clearly reflects a deep-seated animosity toward her religious background, characterising the entire ordeal as a manifestation of a religiously motivated 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 0
- Adult 1
- Senior Citizen 0
- Unknown 0
Case Status
Arrested
Perpetrators Details
Perpetrators
Muslim Extremists
Perpetrators Range
From 5 to 10
Perpetrators Gender
both
Sources 
