Madarsa cleric Tufail Khan of UP lures Hindu man with Govt job to convert to Islam, sedates and circumcises him

Case ID : 725748f | Location : Amroha, Uttar Pradesh, India | Date of Incident : Mon, 27 February, 2023

Case ID : 725748f

Amroha, Uttar Pradesh, India

27 February, 2023

Madarsa cleric Tufail Khan of UP lures Hindu man with Govt job to convert to Islam, sedates and circumcises him

Predatory Proselytisation

Conversion/ attempts to convert by inducement

Harassment, threats, coercion for conversion

Case Summary

In Amroha, Uttar Pradesh, a Madarsa cleric named Tufail Khan deceived a Hindu man named Chandra Shekhar Yadav into converting to Islam by promising him a government job, a house in Delhi and marriage with Tufail's sister-in-law. The two became good friends when Chandra Shekhar shifted to Delhi in search for a job and started frequenting Hazrat Nizamuddin Dargah. Tufail got a new Aadhar card prepared, wherein he named him Mohammad Hilal. Chandra Shekhar alias Mohammed Hilal was then confined at Tufail Khan’s Madarsa, where he was also made to perform namaz and adhere to other Islamic rituals. In 2015, Tufail along with four others approached Chandra Shekhar and started forcing him to get circumcised. Chandra Shekhar fled the Madarsa and returned to his village. Five days later, Maulana Tufail went to Amroha with four of his associates and circumcised Chandra Shekhar alias Hilal after sedating him. For the next two years, Tufail kept Chandra Shekhar in his Madarsa, paid him ten thousand rupees as a stipend, and did not fulfil any of the promises initially made. After a fallout between the two and on realising Tufail duped him, Chandra Shekhar returned to Amroha and reverted to Hinduism. The conversion gang led by Tufail Khan threatened him with dire consequences, which prevented Chandra Shekhar from approaching the police. He eventually filed an FIR against the accused Maulana and his wife.

Why it is Hate Crime ?

This particular case has been classified as a religiously motivated hate crime under two subcategories under Predatory Proselytisation because of the various distinct components that demonstrate the perpetrator's bias against the Hindu faith and their deliberate attempt to alienate the victims from their Hindu identity. Because of the case's specifics, we have put this case under the prime category: Predatory Proselytization. To narrow down the search further we have chosen the subcategory of 'harassment, threats, coercion for conversion' under this core category in addition to 'conversion by inducement.' 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. The second sub-category under 'Predatory Proselytisation' relevant in this case is conversion by inducement. Predatory Proselytisation is not just limited to threat, harassment, force and violence, but it also has contours of stealth. In several cases, the Hindu victim is exploited to convert, with non-Hindus taking advantage of their poverty. In such cases, the Hindu victim who is suffering financially is offered monetary benefits, including lucrative offers for jobs, health treatment, education, etc, to induce the victim into changing his/her religion. In such cases, the religious identity of the victim and the aim to disenfranchise him from his faith form the heart of the crime. Also, taking advantage of and exploiting an individual’s economic vulnerabilities is widely acknowledged as exploitation, forms of which are often penalised by law. Such cases therefore are considered religiously motivated hate crimes since the victim’s religious identity forms the very heart of the crime itself. In this specific case, elements of both these subcategories were observed. Firstly, it is evident from the details that the Hindu victim belonged to the economically weaker section of the society. The accused were attempting to convert him by offering him the inducement of a job. Further, they also threatened the victim with dire consequences if he refused to convert. Another element in the case was that the accused physically tortured him and circumcised him against his will to intimidate him into acceding to their conversation demands. It is therefore observed that the accused not only attempted to convert the Hindu victim through inducement but also issued threats and harassed him in an attempt to convert him. Since the motivating factor of the crime was the religious identity of the victims and the intention of disenfranchising them from it, the case has been categorised as a hate crime.