Hindu woman raped and threatened at gunpoint to convert to Islam

Case ID : 90a068f | Location : Pune, Maharashtra, India | Date of Incident : Thu, 23 January, 2025
Case ID : 90a068f
location Pune, Maharashtra, India
date 23 January, 2025
Hindu woman raped and threatened at gunpoint to convert to Islam
Predatory Proselytisation
Harassment, threats, coercion for conversion

Case Summary

A 32-year-old Hindu woman was confined in a house and threatened to convert to Islam. After issuing threats, she was raped. In connection with this case, three people, including a woman, have been booked and arrested. The 32-year-old victim filed a complaint at the Airport Police Station. Based on her complaint, the police arrested Santosh Ramdas Gaikwad (55, resident of Vitthal Temple, Dhanori), Sagar Madhukar Landge (30, resident of Gali No. 3, Madhavnagar, Dhanori), and a woman. According to the police, the accused and the victim were acquainted. The accused pressured the victim to convert. They called her to the Dhanori area, where Santosh Gaikwad and Sagar Landge confined her in the house of the accused woman. Later, both men threatened her at gunpoint and issued death threats. Following this, Sagar Landge took the victim to the Lohegaon area, where he confined her in a room. The victim stated in her complaint that the woman also threatened and repeatedly harassed her. A case of rape and possession of illegal weapons has been registered against the accused. Three individuals, including the woman, have been arrested.

Why it is Hate Crime ?

This case has been added to the tracker under the prime category of- Predatory proselytisation. Under this, the sub-category selected is- Harassment, threats, 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 exploit her. She was kidnapped and kept in confinement. The accused pressured her to convert to Islam, by deploying threats and violence. As per the victim's testimony, she was raped and threatened at gunpoint to renounce her professed faith and accept Islam. 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 convert the Hindu woman forcefully. Further, the central aim of the perpetrator was to disenfranchise the Hindu woman from her professed faith. Since the central motivation is 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 0
  • Adult 1
  • Senior Citizen 0
  • Unknown 0
Case Status Background
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Case Status


Arrested

Case Status Background
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Perpetrators Details

Perpetrators


Others

Perpetrators Range


From 2 To 5

Perpetrators Gender


both

Case Details SVG
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