Muslim friend and his family pressurises Hindu Air Force officer to embrace Islam, friend's wife files fake rape case when he resists conversion; victim commits suicide
Nagaur, Rajasthan, India 
19 February, 2024
Case Summary
On February 20, a 24-year-old Air Force officer named Sukharam Jaat, hailing from Midiyan village in Didwana Kuchaman district of Rajasthan, committed suicide while on duty in Hyderabad. According to Parbatsar Additional Superintendent of Police Dharamveer Singh Janu, Sukharam Bhinchar, the deceased, hung himself in his room. His father, Asharam, lodged a complaint at Gachchipura police station He revealed that Sukharam was pressured to convert by his friend, the friend's wife and father. The friend, an acquaintance of Sukharam, manipulated him for money, staying with him during Sukharam's vacations and coercing him to convert to Islam. The accused indoctrinated the victim and brainwashed him against Hinduism. Furthermore, they stole all of his salary. The trio forced Sukharam to embrace Islam, however, he didn’t. The accused woman then threatened to implicate him in a false case and get him fired from his job. When the Hindu Air Force officer did not accede to their demands, his friend's wife, on 19th February, filed a rape lawsuit against him. Sukharam killed himself in Hyderabad the following day.
Why it is Hate Crime ?
Because of the case's specifics, we have put this case under the prime category: Predatory Proselytization and to narrow down the search further we have chosen three sub-categories namely, 'harassment, threats, coercion for conversion', 'conversion/ attempts to convert by inducement' and 'suicide after pressure to convert' under this core category. The first sub-category under 'Predatory Proselytisation' relevant in this case 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. The second sub-category under 'Predatory Proselytisation' relevant in this case is 'conversion/ attempts to convert by inducement'. Predatory Proselytisation is not just limited to threat, harassment, force and violence, but it also has contours of stealth. In several cases, the Hindu victim is exploited to convert, with non-Hindus taking advantage of their poverty. In such cases, the Hindu victim who is suffering financially is offered monetary benefits, including lucrative offers for jobs, health treatment, education, etc, to induce the victim into changing his/her religion. In such cases, the religious identity of the victim and the aim to disenfranchise him from his faith form the heart of the crime. Also, taking advantage of and exploiting an individual’s economic vulnerabilities is widely acknowledged as exploitation, forms of which are often penalised by law. Such cases therefore are considered religiously motivated hate crimes since the victim’s religious identity forms the very heart of the crime itself. The third sub-category under 'Predatory Proselytisation' relevant in this case is 'suicide after pressure to convert.' When there is pressure, threat or coercion employed upon the Hindu victim to convert to a different religion, in several cases, owing to the humiliation or pressure/threat, the victim commits suicide. In such cases, the pressure/threat/intimidation/coercion/violence itself is driven by animosity towards the victim’s Hindu faith. The pressure/threat that is employed leads to the Hindu victim taking his own life. Since the victim’s faith is at the heart of the pressure to convert and the ensuing suicide by the victim, such cases are considered religiously motivated hate crimes. In this instance, the victim was harassed to convert to Islam by the Muslim perpetrator and his family. When he refused to comply, they attempted to entice him with gifts and cash, and the accused falsely accused him of rape. The victim suffered from mental trauma. The victim was driven to commit suicide by the pressure to convert and the shame of being accused of rape. The victim was harassed with the explicit aim of forcing him to convert, which proves how much the perpetrators despised the victim's faith. Since the motivating factor of the crime was the religious identity of the victims and the intention of disenfranchising them from it, the case has been included under this sub-category as well.
Victim Details
Total Victim
1
Deceased
1
Gender
- Male 1
- Female 0
- 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
Complaint registered
Perpetrators Details
Perpetrators
Muslim Extremists
Perpetrators Range
From 2 To 5
Perpetrators Gender
both
Sources 
