Muslim man poses as Hindu to trap the national-level shooter, forces her to convert to Islam and perform Nikah
Ranchi, Jharkhand, India 
18 August, 2014
Case Summary
The case dates back to the year 2014 when the victim wedded Rakib-ul Hasan on 7 July, in accordance with Hindu customs. Rakib-ul Hasan had posed as Ranjit Kohli to trap the national-level shooter. However, on the second day of their union, Rakib-ul Hasan and Mustaque Ahmad, who served as the registrar of vigilance at the time, began pressuring the national-level shooter to become a Muslim and do Nikaah (Islamic marriage). After discovering that her husband was a Muslim, the victim filed a complaint against Rakib-ul Hasan and his mother with the Hindpidhi police station on August 19, 2014. She alleged that her husband misrepresented his faith and misled her into marrying him. She also accused him of tormenting her for refusing to accept Islam. The accused's mother Khushar Rani meanwhile threatened the national shooter that if she failed to convert her religion to Islam, partners in her bed would keep changing. Tara Shahdeo was sternly warned not to apply sindoor or else her hands would be broken. Multiple Muslim clerics were called to convert her. She suffered severe beatings when she refused. She was threatened with the murder of not just herself but even her family members if she disclosed the torture she was enduring to anyone. The culprits also made dowry demands from her. Her oppression continued for a month before she decided to break free. There were cigarette marks on her body and she was hospitalized after she was saved. The CBI took up the investigation in 2015, following a Jharkhand High Court decision, and a case was filed in Delhi. In 2023, the Central Bureau of Investigation (CBI) Court announced the punishments for guilty convicts in the Tara Shahdeo religious conversion case. The CBI pronounced a sentence of life imprisonment for her ex-husband Rakib-ul Hasan and ten years imprisonment for his mother Kaushar Rani. The then registrar of the High Court Mustaque Ahmed, accused of conspiring, has also been sentenced to 15 years imprisonment.
Why it is Hate Crime ?
Three distinct elements in this particular case demonstrate that the Muslim perpetrator committed the crime while harbouring a bias against the Hindu faith. The first factor is that the accused pretended to be a Hindu and married the Hindu woman in a temple, deceiving her. 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. Further, the Muslim perpetrator started pressuring her to forcefully change her religious identity to Islam after succeeding in deceiving her. In such cases, a non-Hindu man marries a Hindu woman and the force/pressure to convert to Islam begins after marriage. In such cases, the marriage is consensual in most cases and often, there is no element of the man hiding his religious identity. The marriage could be under the Special Marriages Act where neither parties are required to convert their religion for the marriage to be considered legitimate. While the victim in such cases enters matrimony assuming that religious identity is not a barrier, the non-Hindu man starts to pressure the woman to convert to Islam after marriage. In such cases, there is application of force by the perpetrator, including, denial of the woman’s religious rights. Some of the means by which the woman is forced/pressured to convert include force-feeding beef, forced to read the Kalma, forced to wear a hijab, forced for Halala, etc. There are several instances where after marriage, the woman voluntarily converts to Islam. Such cases are often argued to be a result of religious brainwashing, however, for the purpose of documenting religiously motivated hate crimes, in the absence of the victim complaining of forced conversion, such cases do not form a part of the database. The third factor in this case which makes it worthy of being documented as a religiously motivated hate crime is that the Muslim perpetrator assaulted the Hindu victim after she refused to bow down to his demands to convert her religion. When Hindu women are in a relationship with non-Hindu men, there are cases where the woman faces threats or assault after she refuses to convert and change her religious identity owing to pressure/force by the non-Hindu man. Such relationships may be consensual with the religious identity of the non-Hindu man known to the victim. Somewhere along the relationship, the non-Hindu man starts pressurizing the Hindu woman to convert to Islam and upon her refusal, assaults or threatens the victim. Such cases are driven by specific religious motivations and against the religious identity of the victim and are therefore qualified as hate crimes. Cases where the Hindu woman converts to Islam and does not file a complaint about the force or threat, are not considered a part of the hate tracker, even though, it may be argued that the woman was brainwashed or threatened to convert to Islam.
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
Perpetrator held guilty by court
Perpetrators Details
Perpetrators
Muslim Extremists
Perpetrators Range
From 2 To 5
Perpetrators Gender
both
Sources 
