Minor Hindu girl student raped, forced to convert, threatened with murder

Case Summary
A minor Hindu girl student was raped and pressured to convert by a Muslim youth in Una district. The 11th-standard student reported that the perpetrator had been harassing her for one and a half years through repeated phone calls. On January 20th, he physically assaulted and sexually violated her, threatening to kill her and her family if she resisted. The victim lodged a complaint at the Women's Police Station, detailing the sexual assault and coercive religious conversion attempt. Police registered a case under sections 64(1), 115(2), 351(2), 352, and POCSO after medically examining the victim. Police ASP Surendra Sharma confirmed the investigation was underway and the accused would be arrested soon.
Why it is Hate Crime ?
This case has been added under the prime category of- Predatory proselytisation. Under this, the sub-category selected is- Harassment, threat, coercion for conversion. 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. In this case, the perpetrator exploited the victim's familiarity with him to pressure her to convert to Islam, by deploying threats and violence. As per the victim's testimony, the accused had been harassing her for the last one and a half years, coercing her to convert to Islam. On January 20th, he physically assaulted and sexually violated her, threatening to kill her and her family if she resisted. The underlying motivation of predatory proselytisation itself is animosity towards the professed faith of the victim. In this case, there was violence involved in the pressure exerted to forcefully convert the Hindu girl. Further, the central aim of the perpetrator was to disenfranchise the Hindu minor from her professed faith. Since the central motivation was religion, this case has been added 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