Muslim e-rickshaw driver drugs and marries Hindu girl, pressures her to convert to Islam

Case ID : 90a0639 | Location : Bareilly, Uttar Pradesh, India | Date of Incident : Sat, 28 December, 2024

Case ID : 90a0639

Bareilly, Uttar Pradesh, India

28 December, 2024

Muslim e-rickshaw driver drugs and marries Hindu girl, pressures her to convert to Islam

Crimes against women in relationships and other sexual crimes

Assault or threat upon refusal to convert

Forced conversion before marriage

Case Summary

In the Killa police station area of Bareilly, a young woman has accused an e-rickshaw driver of forcibly marrying her after administering intoxicants and pressuring her to convert to Islam. The victim, who works in a jewellery shop, used to travel daily by e-rickshaw, during which time she became acquainted with the accused. On December 29, the accused took the victim to his home, where his family allegedly made conversion a condition for marriage. When the victim expressed her intention to discuss the matter with her family, the accused took her somewhere in his e-rickshaw and forced her to consume intoxicants. According to the victim's account, when she regained consciousness, the accused claimed that they were married, and now she was obligated to convert to Islam. The accused also allegedly threatened to ruin her reputation. Fearing repercussions, the victim initially refrained from filing a complaint. However, later a case was filed at the Killa police station.

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 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. In this instance, while the Muslim accused did not hide his identity, the nature of the relationship suggests that the Hindu woman was initially led to believe that her faith would not be a barrier to their romantic involvement. Trusting the accused's word, she entered the relationship. However, his true intentions were exposed when he began pressuring her to convert to Islam. To further coerce the victim, he forcefully drugged the victim and when she regained consciousness, the accused claimed that they were married, and now she was obligated to convert to Islam. He also threatened to ruin her reputation if she did not accede to her conversion demands. Given these elements, the case has been classified as a religiously motivated hate crime, driven by the accused's animosity towards the Hindu faith.