Mother Parveen Bano conspires to convert her Hindu son and husband to Islam, changes their names on Aadhar cards

Case ID : b183591 | Location : Durg, Chhattisgarh, India | Date of Incident : Tue, 8 October, 2024

Case ID : b183591

Durg, Chhattisgarh, India

8 October, 2024

Mother Parveen Bano conspires to convert her Hindu son and husband to Islam, changes their names on Aadhar cards

Predatory Proselytisation

Harassment, threats, coercion for conversion

Case Summary

In the Kasaridhi area of Durg district, Chhattisgarh, two Hindu individuals, Sonu Tiwari and his father, Shiv Kumar Tiwari, were reportedly forced to convert to Islam, with their names on Aadhaar cards changed to Firoz Ansari and Raju Ansari, respectively. Despite this forced conversion, their educational certificates and other identity documents continue to reflect their original Hindu names. Sonu explained that the forced conversion was carried out by his mother, Parveen Bano, and her brother. His father, Shiv Kumar Tiwari, who has a criminal history, married Parveen, a Muslim woman. Sonu was born in 1992, and his early education was completed under his Hindu name, as confirmed by school documents such as his mark sheets and school leaving certificates. However, when Shiv Kumar was imprisoned due to his criminal background, Parveen took Sonu to her maternal home, where her brother changed Sonu’s Aadhaar card, giving him the new identity of Firoz Ansari. In addition to Sonu, Shiv Kumar’s name was also altered on his Aadhaar card and other official documents, including his driving license. Sonu stated that the conspiracy to convert him and his father was led by his maternal uncle, with support from his mother. Sonu has been fighting for the past two years to restore his original Hindu identity, seeking rectification of his Aadhaar card and other documents. He insists that he is a Hindu and wishes to retain that identity.

Why it is Hate Crime ?

This particular case has been classified as a religiously motivated hate crime under the subcategory- 'Harassment, threats, coercion for conversion', under the core category of Predatory Proselytisation because of the various distinct components that demonstrate the perpetrator's bias against the Hindu faith and the deliberate attempt to alienate the victims from their Hindu identity. 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. This case is a striking example of forced religious conversion that aligns with patterns of coercive proselytisation. The forced conversion of Sonu Tiwari and his father, Shiv Kumar Tiwari, involved both the alteration of their Aadhaar cards to reflect Muslim identities and the erasure of their original Hindu names. Such changes to their official documentation highlight a targeted effort to impose a new religious identity on them, stripping them of their original religious affiliations. 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.