Shahrukh poses as Sonu with Kalava and tika to lure minor Hindu girl, gang-rapes her in Garhwa's forest with his friend
Garhwa, Jharkhand, India 
25 October, 2024
Case Summary
A minor Hindu woman from Aurangabad, Bihar, living with relatives in Garhwa for her studies, became acquainted with Mohammad Shahrukh through Instagram. Shahrukh, who presented himself as a Hindu named Sonu by wearing a Kalava and a tika, gained her trust. On October 26, 2024, he took her in his car to a secluded forest area, where both he and his friend gang-raped her. Locals and family members later found the victim distressed and naked at the scene, apprehended Shahrukh and his accomplice Tauqeer Ansari (alias Farhan), and handed them over to the police.
Why it is Hate Crime ?
This case has been added to two primary categories, 'hate crimes against women in relationship' under the sub-category, 'man pretends to be Hindu', and 'Grooming/Brainwashing' under the sub-category 'rape and sexual assault'. 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. In this case, the Muslim man Shahrukh pretended to be a Hindu by changing his name and wearing symbols of Hinduism like Kalava and Tilak, to lure a minor. The fact that Shahrukh was pretending to be a Hindu indicates that the minor Hindu girl was targeted by him specifically for her religious identity and therefore, this case has been added to this category. Secondly, it is pertinent to note that the victim was a minor who was lured and then sexually assaulted. 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. In this case, the Hindu victim was a minor who was lured into a "consensual relationship" with the purpose of sexual assault. Minors have no agency to provide consent for a physical relationship and therefore, the action by the perpetrator is a crime ab inito. The additional layer in this case, making it a religiously motivated hate crime is the fact that not only was the minor lured into the relationship with the Muslim man pretending to be a Hindu, proving that she was targeted for her religious identity specifically, but she was also raped along with another perpetrator This points towards the grooming of a minor for the purpose sexual abuse and assault. For that reason, this case is also being added to this category.
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
Arrested
Perpetrators Details
Perpetrators
Muslim Extremists
Perpetrators Range
From 2 To 5
Perpetrators Gender
male
Sources 
