Hindu minor girls forced into prostitution after being lured into relationship by Muslim men disguised as Hindus

Case ID : 90a06fe | Location : Purnia, Bihar, India | Date of Incident : Tue, 28 January, 2025
Case ID : 90a06fe
location Purnia, Bihar, India
date 28 January, 2025
Hindu minor girls forced into prostitution after being lured into relationship by Muslim men disguised as Hindus
Crimes against women in relationships and other sexual crimes
Man pretends to be Hindu
Pattern of targeting Hindu women
Name Changed
Brainwashed and/or groomed
Pattern of targeting Hindu minors
Rape and sexual assault/harassment

Case Summary

A major sex trafficking racket was uncovered in Purnia, Bihar, where a group led by Aftab Khan was found forcing Hindu girls into prostitution. On January 30, the police conducted raids in the Kathiar More area and rescued 11 minors who had been coerced into the trade. During the operation, law enforcement arrested 32 individuals connected to the case. Aftab Khan, the mastermind, had been using a false Hindu identity, writing ‘Jai Bajrang Bali’ on his car and introducing himself as ‘Ankit Tiwari’ to lure Hindu girls into relationships under the pretext of marriage. Once trapped, the victims were forced into the sex trade. His associates, including Mohammed Shakib, Mausam Khan, Guddu Khan, and Zubeeda, also adopted Hindu aliases to deceive their victims. Shakib, known as ‘Rajiv Shah,’ procured girls from different areas, while Mausam, posing as ‘Rishabh Shah,’ targeted victims through phone calls. Guddu Khan and Zubeeda, who went by ‘Katrina,’ played active roles in running the trafficking network. The gang charged ₹10,000 per night from clients and even sold victims to brokers in other states, earning up to ₹5 lakh per transaction. Despite the arrests, Aftab Khan managed to evade capture, and efforts were underway to locate him. A First Information Report (FIR) was filed in the case, and the police kept intensifying their search. The rescued minors were placed in a juvenile reform home for rehabilitation.

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. Within this, the first sub-category and the subsequent tertiary categories selected are- 'Man pretends to be Hindu', 'Name changed' and 'Pattern of targeting Hindu woman', respectively. When a non-Hindu man pretends to be a Hindu to deceive a Hindu woman into a relationship, the act is seen as triggered by malafide intentions. In some cases, the woman eventually accepts the man’s original religious identity and converts after the man’s identity is revealed. These cases could be argued as cases of religious brainwashing and a result of the pressure a woman feels after getting into a relationship with a man. The woman, it can be argued, also changed her religious identity because of the stigma she believes she might face if she chooses to walk out of a deceptive relationship. However, for the purpose of documenting hate crimes, the cases in this subcategory are limited to those where there is explicit violence aimed at religious conversion against the wishes of the victim (force-feeding beef, blackmailing with intimate videos, rape on refusal to convert, etc), or if the woman herself complains of the man’s religious deception. In such cases, it is established that the deception of the non-Hindu man had a specific aim of religious conversion or targeting of the victim due to her Hindu religious identity, therefore, making it a religiously motivated hate crime. The second category relevant here is- Brainwashed and/or groomed and within this, the two tertiary categories selected are- 'Pattern of targeting Hindu minors' and 'Rape and sexual assault/harassment'. In our database, we have not added incidents where women have converted to another religion of their free will and no allegations of forced/involuntary conversion have been made. However, there are certain cases of conversion where the consent itself is a result of the brainwashing or grooming of a minor by the non-Hindu perpetrator trying to victimise a woman for her Hindu religious identity. The phenomenon of grooming points to non-Hindu perpetrators identifying their Hindu victims’ vulnerabilities and exploiting them over months and sometimes years, to extract the supposed ‘consent’ in order to convert their religion. In most cases of grooming, the victims are minors or the grooming started when the victim was a minor. In other cases of grooming, the non-Hindu perpetrator brainwashes and grooms a minor victim to extract their trust and then proceeds to rape them repeatedly with the intent of converting them to their faith. It is pertinent to understand here that when the victim is a minor, the ‘consent’ to convert or enter into a romantic relationship with an adult itself is redundant – addressed by POCSO. While every case of conversion of a minor and incidents of establishing a physical relationship with a minor by an adult is a crime, for the purpose of this database, a case would be considered a hate crime only if there is a distinct religious angle to the grooming. For example, in the UK, if a Hindu minor is targeted by Pakistani grooming gangs, it would be considered a hate crime because the victims are specifically targeted owing to their non-Muslim religious identity with the perpetrators being Muslim. In other cases, if a Hindu minor is brainwashed into entering a physical relationship with the non-Hindu adult perpetrator and the family alleges grooming/brainwashing of the minor to convert her religion, it would form a part of this database. If the victim is a Hindu adult, the case would form a part of this database only if the victim herself says that she was brainwashed/groomed to convert her religion. However, if the victim is deceased (murdered or otherwise), the case would form a part of this database if her family/friends provided testimony that the victim was brainwashed/groomed to convert her religion. Since these crimes have a distinct religious angle where the victim is being targeted owing to her Hindu religious identity, these cases are considered a hate crime. The religious motive of the crime is evident from the fact that the Muslim perpetrators hid their true religious identities to trap the Hindu minor victims. This itself is a clear manifestation of bias and malicious intent towards the victim's religion. By concealing his true identity, they exploited the victim's trust, targeting them under false pretences. This indicates a premeditated intent to manipulate the minors based on their religious background. In cases like these, the tactic of adopting a false Hindu identity to manipulate and "ensnare" Hindu individuals is not just an act of personal betrayal but also an expression of disdain and disregard for Hindus and their beliefs. Further, it is also important to highlight that the victims here were minors, which essentially means that the element of consent and genuine change of conscience was missing ab initio. It is a well-established fact that children are more susceptible to manipulation since they are still developing emotionally, cognitively, and socially. Their brains are not fully matured, making them more vulnerable to influence and less capable of critically evaluating information. Moreover, subtle manipulation tactics can be difficult to detect, especially when they are employed by trusted authority figures in positions of influence. This makes it challenging for parents, to identify and address instances of religious manipulation in schools. Since the underlying offence, in this case, is against children of a specific faith and involves subtle tactics of indoctrination, which obviously stems from a bias against the Hindu faith, this case has been documented as a hate crime.

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Case Status


Complaint registered

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Perpetrators Details

Perpetrators


Muslim Extremists

Perpetrators Range


From 5 to 10

Perpetrators Gender


male

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