Hindu woman harassed for conversion and marriage; drugged and beaten up when she resists

Case ID : 90a05bc | Location : Ghaziabad, Uttar Pradesh, India | Date of Incident : Sun, 19 January, 2025
Case ID : 90a05bc
location Ghaziabad, Uttar Pradesh, India
date 19 January, 2025
Hindu woman harassed for conversion and marriage; drugged and beaten up when she resists
Crimes against women in relationships and other sexual crimes
Assault or threat upon refusal to convert
Forced conversion before marriage
Blackmailed to convert

Case Summary

A Muslim man named Mahmood Khan raped a Hindu woman and attempted to force her to convert to Islam. The victim, a separated woman living with her mother in a village in the Jaisinghpur Kotwali area, filed the complaint. She stated that Mahmood, a resident of Gabhadia, befriended her on a social media platform. On August 20, 2024, Mahmood invited her to the Collectorate but took her to a room in the city, where he raped her and recorded the incident. He later threatened to make the video public if she refused to convert and marry him. He reportedly called two to three people to pressure her into conversion. On November 25, 2024, the victim managed to escape when Mahmood was not present. Later, he contacted her again, threatening to release the video if she did not return. When she went to confront him, Mahmood and his associates tried to drug her. They beat her when she resisted. Police arrested Mahmood near Azad Park under the Prohibition of Unlawful Conversion of Religion Act, 2021, along with other charges. He was presented in court and subsequently sent to jail.

Why it is Hate Crime ?

This case has been added to the tracker under the prime category of- Crimes against women in relationships and other sexual crimes. Under this, the first sub-category selected is- Forced conversion before marriage. In such cases, a non-Hindu man is in a relationship with a Hindu woman when the pressure to convert her religion begins to manifest. The relationship in such cases is mostly consensual and the religious identity of the perpetrator is known to the Hindu woman in the relationship, however, at some point during the relationship, the non-Hindu man starts to force the victim to convert her religion and give up her Hindu religious identity. In such cases, the methods used to force the victim to convert her religion often revolve around force-feeding beef, forcing her to wear hijab, forcing her to read the Kalma or even pressurizing the victim to do ‘Nikah’, which is marriage under Islamic law, with a prerequisite being conversion to Islam. Cases where a Hindu woman consensually converts to Islam in a relationship will be left out of the hate crime database, even though it could be argued in several cases that the conversion was a result of religious brainwashing. The second sub-category selected here is- Assault and 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. The third sub-category under which this case has been placed is- Blackmailed to convert. When Hindu women are in a relationship with non-Hindu men, there are cases where the woman is blackmailed to convert her religion, owing to her religious identity of being a Hindu. Such relationships may be consensual with the religious identity of the non-Hindu man known to the victim, however, there could be cases where the relationship is not consensual and the non-Hindu man starts blackmailing a Hindu woman to convert her religion. In these cases, it is often seen that the Hindu woman is blackmailed with intimate photos and/or videos, threats of harm to her or her family, threats of violence etc. Such cases are driven by specific religious motivations and against the religious identity of the victim and are therefore qualified as hate crimes. In this instance, there is no specific element of the Muslim accused hiding his identity. In such cases, the women, in all probability, are made to believe that their faith would not stand in the way of their relationship. Here too, taking the accused’s word for it, the Hindu woman may have entered into a romantic relationship with the Muslim man. However, his true intentions became clear thereafter when he raped her and recorded a video and used it to blackmail her into conversion and marriage. When the woman refused, she was subjected to threats and physical assault. Such actions are not random but are directed specifically at individuals because of their religious affiliation. The accused explicitly targeted the victim’s Hindu identity, as evidenced by his attempts to coerce her into converting to Islam under threats of public humiliation and violence. The deliberate use of rape, blackmail, and physical assault highlights a pattern of targeting vulnerable Hindu women to strip them of their religious and cultural identity. The act of recording the assault and threatening to release the video unless the victim agreed to convert not only underscores the malicious intent behind his actions but also reveals his disdain for the victim's faith. By involving accomplices to pressure her into conversion and resorting to further physical violence when she resisted, Mahmood demonstrated a broader pattern of using fear and coercion to achieve his objective. This targeted violence is a direct expression of hate and intolerance towards the victim's religion, hence this case has been classified as a religious 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 Background
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Case Status


Arrested

Case Status Background
Gavel Icon

Perpetrators Details

Perpetrators


Muslim Extremists

Perpetrators Range


One Person

Perpetrators Gender


male

Case Details SVG
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