Hindu woman tortured, forced to convert and financially exploited by husband Masood and family

Case ID : 72574ff | Location : Ratnagiri, Maharashtra, India | Date of Incident : Fri, 24 March, 2023

Case ID : 72574ff

Ratnagiri, Maharashtra, India

24 March, 2023

Hindu woman tortured, forced to convert and financially exploited by husband Masood and family

Crimes against women in relationships and other sexual crimes

Forced conversion after marriage

Assault or threat upon refusal to convert

Torture of family to force woman to convert

Case Summary

A Muslim man named Masood Rajjak Shah forced his Hindu wife to convert to Islam. He along with his family members allegedly tortured the 25-year-old woman and took away around Rs 14,00,000 from the complainant and her maternal family. They also physically assaulted and threatened the victim for life and also hurled casteist abuses at her. The accused held the victim's two minor children captive to mentally torture the victim. The incident is said to have happened in Chiplun city of Ratnagiri district. Ratnagiri police arrested the accused under sections 406, 420, 498 A, 323, 504, 506, 34 of the Indian Penal Code and under sections 3(1)(g), 3(1)(r), 3(1)(s), 3(2)(va) of the Scheduled Tribes (Prevention of Atrocities) Act, 1989.

Why it is Hate Crime ?

Three distinct elements in this particular case demonstrate that the Muslim perpetrator committed the crime while harbouring a bias against the Hindu faith. The first factor is that the accused forced the victim to convert to Islam after marriage. 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. Secondly, the accused assaulted or threatened the victim 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. Third, the Muslim perpetrator tortured her family to force the 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.