‘Maulvi’ Sarfaraz arrested for forcing a Hindu woman to convert to Islam in Ghaziabad
Ghaziabad, Uttar Pradesh, India 
23 November, 2023
Case Summary
On November 24th 2023, in Ghaziabad, Uttar Pradesh, a Maulvi named Sarfaraz was arrested for allegedly coercing a Hindu woman into converting to Islam, promising to rid her of 'evil powers' and 'ghosts'. Sarfaraz, the arrested cleric, admitted to coercing non-Muslims into converting. The arrest followed a complaint by the woman's son, Akshay Srivastava, to the Nandgram Police Station. Akshay stated that his mother, Meenu, had been ill since 2017, and some individuals suggested consulting Maulvi Sarfaraz for her cure. Sarfaraz induced fear of ghosts and persuaded Meenu to remove Hindu idols and portraits from her home. He also pressured her children and other family members to convert to Islam.
Why it is Hate Crime ?
Since this case has two distinct elements—harassment, threat, and coercion for conversion, as well as conversion by inducement—it has been categorized as a hate crime with religious motivations under the primary category of predatory proselytization. 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. attempting to convert by offering inducements'. 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. In this case, the Muslim perpetrator employed intimidation tactics like inducing fear of ghosts and persuading the Hindu victim to remove Hindu idols and portraits from her home, to arm-twist her to convert to Islam. Secondly, the perpetrator was attempting to convert the Hindu victim by offering inducement like a cure for his mother's ailment - a cure that she either could not afford or was an incurable disease. This clearly means that the Maulvi was attempting to exploit a specific vulnerability of the victim. Since employing arm-twisting tactics and exploiting vulnerabilities for the explicit purpose of conversion is purely based on animosity towards the victim's faith, this case has been categorised as a religiously motivated hate crime.
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
Arrested
Perpetrators Details
Perpetrators
Muslim Extremists
Perpetrators Range
One Person
Perpetrators Gender
male
Sources 
