16-year-old Sakshi stabbed by Sahil in Delhi's Shahbad Dairy area, friend says she knew Sahil as Hindu, wore Kalava, police says 'premeditated murder' in chargesheet
Rohini, Delhi, India 
27 May, 2023
Case Summary
In Delhi's Shahbad Dairy area, a 16-year-old girl named Sakshi was brutally killed by her boyfriend Sahil. In the murder, which was caught on CCTV camera, Sakshi was stabbed over 20 times and then her head was crushed using a boulder. The accused, Sahil was arrested in Uttar Pradesh’s Bulandshahr district. In the picture of his arrest shared by ANI, Sahil was seen wearing a Kalava (a sacred Hindu thread) on his wrist. Nav Bharat Times quoted the police as saying that 20-year-old Sahil and the deceased victim knew each other for 3-4 years and were in a relationship. Neetu, a friend of the deceased said that Sakshi and Sahil had been fighting for the past many days. Meanwhile, another friend Aarti said that Sakshi knew Sahil as a Hindu boy. On May 28, 2023, the victim was on her way to buy things for the birthday party of Neetu’s son when Sahil stopped her and attacked her with a knife. Sahil was also associated with a gang of local goons and was under the influence of alcohol when he committed the brutal murder. The 16-17 page chargesheet received from the hospital by the Delhi police revealed that the 16-year-old girl’s internal organs, including the intestine, were left hanging out of her stomach after being brutally stabbed. The attack left as many as 70 bones completely smashed. The preliminary findings of the post-mortem report also said that the girl suffered a ruptured skull and left lung during the attack. Investigation revealed that it was not a ‘crime of passion,’ but a premeditated murder. He had been strolling across the street where he murdered the victim since the morning. In addition to Sakshi, the accused planned to murder her ex-boyfriend Praveen and two to three other youths. The two were in a relationship since June 2021, however, they had frequent arguments and finally, the victim told Sahil that she wanted to break up with him. According to the police, accused Sahil met the victim on May 25, forcing her to resume their relationship. When the victim refused, he hurled abuses at her in front of her three friends. Following this, the victim’s friends threatened to beat him. One friend Jhabru had threatened Sahil that he would kill him if he did not stop chasing Sakshi. After the alleged insult, Sahil decided to murder Sakshi. Meanwhile, an eyewitness told the police that Sahil was not alone when he stabbed Sakshi but was accompanied by other of his gang members who stood nearby and witnessed him kill Sakshi. Allegedly, he had previously seen Sahil and his gang members consuming drugs on multiple occasions. The police had filed a chargesheet in the case in 2023, calling the murder premeditated.
Why it is Hate Crime ?
A hate crime is supposed to have taken place when the perpetrator intentionally targets an individual owing to his/her bias against a certain characteristic of that individual or his/her declared hatred towards that characteristic. A religious hate crime is one where the offence is committed against an individual or a group or an individual or a group of people are targeted specifically because of their religious identity. In cases where religiously motivated hate crimes against Hindu women in relationships are committed, it is seen that the perpetrator targets the victim specifically because of her religious identity of being a Hindu and is therefore a hate crime. In this category, we would also add cases where women have been subjected to sexual crimes owing to religious hate/animosity,, but were not in a relationship with the perpetrator. In such cases, there would have to be a specific marker of religious animosity as a motivation for the crime. For example, grooming young Hindu girls for sexual exploitation with the non-Hindu perpetrator targeting Hindu girls specifically, non-Hindu perpetrator targeting Hindu women as a pattern, or, for example, rape as a weapon used against women with religious hate as the motivation. Since the religious identity of the victim is the primary marker owing to which the perpetrator targeted the victim, it would be considered a religiously motivated hate crime. In this case, the Hindu victim was reportedly in a relationship with the Muslim perpetrator. The FSL report confirmed that before Sahil murdered Sakshi, she was brutally raped and while he was stabbing her, his associates were watching the murder. The police further said that the murder was premeditated. Further, what makes this case particularly sinister, is that when Sahil was arrested, it was evident in the arrest pictures that he, despite being a Muslim man, was wearing a Kalava and Sakshi's friends confirmed that she knew Sahil as a Hindu man. 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.
Victim Details
Total Victim
1
Deceased
1
Gender
- Male 0
- Female 1
- Third Gender 0
- Unknown 0
Caste
- SC/ST 1
- OBC 0
- General 0
- Unknown 0
Age Group
- Minor 1
- Adult 0
- Senior Citizen 0
- Unknown 0
Case Status
Case sub-judice
Perpetrators Details
Perpetrators
Muslim Extremists
Perpetrators Range
One Person
Perpetrators Gender
male
Sources 
