Hindu woman artist forced to convert, marry by national award winning Muslim choreographer

Case ID : b45f337 | Location : Hyderabad, Telangana, India | Date of Incident : Sat, 14 September, 2024
Case ID : b45f337
location Hyderabad, Telangana, India
date 14 September, 2024
Hindu woman artist forced to convert, marry by national award winning Muslim choreographer
Predatory Proselytisation
Harassment, threats, coercion for conversion
Proselytisation by grooming, brainwashing, manipulation or subtle indoctrination
Rape and sexual assault/harassment
Conversion of minor

Case Summary

National Award-winning choreographer Shaik Jani Basha, also known as Jani Master, was booked for sexually assaulting a 21-year-old woman he had worked with. The woman said that Jani Master assaulted her during outdoor shoots and also attacked her at her home, where he allegedly pressured her to convert to Islam and marry, according to the police FIR. Shaik Jani Basha, who is also affiliated with the Jana Sena party, has choreographed for several hit Telugu films, including Allu Arjun’s ‘Ala Vaikunthapuramulo’ and ‘Pushpa,’ as well as Tamil and Hindi movies. His notable works include the choreography for ‘Kaavaalaa’ from ‘Jailer’, ‘Ranjithame’ from ‘Varisu’, and ‘Arabic Kuthu’ from ‘Beast’. He earned the National Award for Best Choreography for the song ‘Megam Karukkatha’ from the Tamil film ‘Thiruchitrambalam’, starring Dhanush and Nithya Menen. Following the allegations, the party distanced themselves from Basha. The FIR reads, “In 2019 victim joined as Jani master’s team as assistant choreographer. Whenever she went out of Hyderabad for shoot, her mother did not travel with her as there were no tickets stay and all so, they got a call from Mumbai project for which she along with Jani master and other 2 male assistants had to go Mumbai. During their stay at Mumbai hotel, Jani master sexually assaulted the victim forcefully and he threatened her not to inform to anyone, otherwise will be fired from the work, and she wouldn’t be able to work in the industry anymore, and out of his fear, she had to stay silent, then he continuously harassed her multiple times in every shoot.” Shaik Jani Basha allegedly sought sexual favors from the victim, and when his advances were rejected, she reportedly endured a physical assault. The complaint also levelled allegation against Jani Master and his wife that they threatened and assaulted the victim, pressuring her to convert to their religion and marry saying “he pressures her to convert to religion and marry him. After few of this when the victim woman worked individually, he along with is wife went to her home and forcefully made to open the door, went inside and started questioning her about religion and Jani master’s wife slapped her multiple times. Jani master does not allow her to work individually on another projects as opportunity came. Shaik Jani Basha use to to go to victim place and started threatening her by sending everyone outside he pressured her to go with him and marry him right at the moment and he threatened her she wouldn’t be allowed in the industry.” It is pertinent to note that according to the victim, Jani Basha sexually abused the victim and threatened her to convert to Islam when she was a minor. Subsequently, Jani Basha was booked and arrested under sections of the Protection of Children from Sexual Offences (POCSO) Act by the Narsingi police of Cyberabad Special Operation Team (SOT). Several sections including sections 376 (2) (punishment for sexual assault), 506 (criminal intimidation) and 323 (punishment for voluntarily causing hurt) of the Indian Penal Code (IPC) were invoked against him. The POCSO Act was later added to the case as she was initially sexually violated by him in 2019 while she was a 16-year-old minor.

Why it is Hate Crime ?

This case has been added to the primary category 'Predatory Proselytisation' under the sub-category '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 other sub-category this case is being added to is 'Proselytisation by grooming, brainwashing, manipulation or subtle indoctrination' under the tertiary categories sexual harassment and conversion of minor. Religious brainwashing essentially means the often subtle and forcible indoctrination to induce someone to give up their religious beliefs to accept contrasting regimented ideas. Religious grooming or brainwashing also involves propaganda and manipulation. It involves the systematic effort, driven by religious malice and indoctrination, to persuade “non-believers’ to accept allegiance, command, or doctrine to and of a contrasting faith. Cases of such grooming or brainwashing are far more nuanced than direct threats, coercion, inducement and violence. In such cases, it is often seen that there is repeated, subtle and continual manipulation of the victim to induce disaffection towards their own faith and acceptance of the contrasting faith of the perpetrator. While subtle indoctrination is widely acknowledged as predatory, an element which is often understated in such conversions or the attempts of such conversion is the role of loyalty and trust which might develop between the perpetrator and the victim. Fiduciary relationships are often abused to affect such religious conversion. For example, an educator transmitting religious doctrine of a competing faith to a Hindu student. The Hindu student is likely to accept what the teacher is transmitting owing to existence of the fiduciary relationship. The exploitation of the fiduciary relationship to religiously indoctrinate victims would also be included in this category. Since the underlying animosity towards the victim’s faith forms the basis of predatory proselytization, such cases are considered religiously motivated hate crimes. In this case, the victim said that the choreographer she worked for sexually abused her, threatened her and was coercing her to convert to Islam along with his wife. The husband-wife duo would assault her upon her refusal to convert as well after breaking into her house and questioning her about her professed faith. Attempting to disenfranchise a victim from her professed based on harassment and threats, such as this, is driven by religious animosity and hostility towards the victim and her faith. Further, since the victim was being threatened to adopt the perpetrator's religious and marry, it is also evident that the victim was chosen owing to her religious identity, also established by the fact that the woman said there were several other Hindu victims who had faced the same. It is further important to note here that the victim was a minor, which means the element of consent and genuine change of conscience was missing ab initio. Minors, due to their young age and lack of maturity, are particularly vulnerable to manipulation and coercion. They may not have the ability to fully understand the implications of converting to another religion and the Muslim perpetrator purposely targeted and exploited this vulnerability of the victim. Since this case exemplifies the use of coercion and manipulation to achieve religious conversion, it is a blatant act of religious hate, which is why it has been documented here in the hate tracker.

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 1
  • Adult 0
  • Senior Citizen 0
  • Unknown 0
Case Status Background
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Case Status


Arrested

Case Status Background
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Perpetrators Details

Perpetrators


Muslim Extremists

Perpetrators Range


From 2 To 5

Perpetrators Gender


both

Case Details SVG
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