Muslim youths abduct, gang-rape and convert minor Hindu girl of UP's Bahraich

Case ID : a4aecfb | Location : Bahraich, Uttar Pradesh, India | Date of Incident : Fri, 2 February, 2024

Case ID : a4aecfb

Bahraich, Uttar Pradesh, India

2 February, 2024

Muslim youths abduct, gang-rape and convert minor Hindu girl of UP's Bahraich

Predatory Proselytisation

Harassment, threats, coercion for conversion

Proselytisation by grooming, brainwashing, manipulation or subtle indoctrination

Rape and sexual assault/harassment

Case Summary

In Bahraich, Uttar Pradesh, a Hindu minor girl was abducted by several youths from the Muslim community while she was returning home from working in the fields on February 3, 2024. Identified as Anees, Saddam, Mohidin, Aleem, and Baura, the abductors gang-raped her for three days, forcibly converted her to Islam and married her off after seeking the assistance of a Maulvi. The Dalit girl managed to escape from their custody and sought refuge with her family. The family initially chose to remain silent. However, when the accused began pressuring them to hand over the girl and threatened to kill her, they decided to take action. The situation escalated when the accused attacked the girl's maternal uncle, prompting her aunt to file a complaint with the Superintendent of Police (SP). In response, the SP instructed the Hardi police station to register a case against the culprits, invoking charges including kidnapping, gang-rape, POCSO violations and SCST Act. SP Vrinda Shukla personally visited the victim's family to assure them of prompt action. Two suspects have been detained and are undergoing interrogation, while efforts are underway to apprehend the remaining perpetrators.

Why it is Hate Crime ?

Because of the case's specifics, this case has been categorised under the prime category: Predatory Proselytization and to narrow down the search further we have chosen the sub-category 'harassment, threats, coercion for conversion' under this core category. 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 Hindu minor girl was abducted and kept in confinement. This itself is a severe form of intimidation. Then she was put through unfathomable physical torture by her perpetrators. The purpose behind the violence employed was to coerce the victim to abandon her 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 forcefully convert the Hindu girl. Further, the central aim of the perpetrators was to disenfranchise the Hindu girl from her professed faith. Since the central motivation is religion, this case has been added as a hate crime.