Hindu minor boy murdered by Muslim girlfriend's family over relationship with her

Case ID : b45f347 | Location : Prayagraj (Allahabad), Uttar Pradesh, India | Date of Incident : Fri, 29 November, 2024

Case ID : b45f347

Prayagraj (Allahabad), Uttar Pradesh, India

29 November, 2024

Hindu minor boy murdered by Muslim girlfriend's family over relationship with her

Men attacked for being associated with non-Hindu women

Attacked by non-Hindu partner or/and her family

Attack resulting in death

Attacked for Hindu identity

Case Summary

A minor Hindu boy was murdered by the family of a Muslim girl whom he was believed to be in a relationship with. The girl and her parents are among the arrested. The victim boy had notably gone missing on Saturday, 30th November. The father of the victim, Ashwani Kumar Yadav stated that he got a call from someone on that evening after which he left the home. Further, he got concerned as Shailesh failed to return home late at night. The family members of the boy also tried to call him but his phone was later switched off. At around 11 pm, the family of the boy began looking for him in the Ismail Lala Ka Pura village discovering his lifeless body. During the investigations, it came to the fore that the boy was in a relationship with a Muslim girl and the family members of the girl had disapproved of their relationship. They had also warned the boy to stay away from the girl but they were still in contact with each other. The parents of the boy suspect that the family of the girl deceptively called the boy and then murdered him before throwing his dead body near the pond. The police meanwhile confirmed that the victim had been hit on his head with a shovel causing severe injuries.

Why it is Hate Crime ?

This case has been added to the tracker under two prime categories. The first is- Men attacked for being associated with non-Hindu women and within this, the sub-category selected is- Attacked by non-Hindu partner or/and her family. When Hindu men are in a relationship with non-Hindu women, there are cases where the man is forced to convert his religion and upon his refusal to do so, the partner or/and her family attacks the victim. Such relationships may be consensual with the religious identity of the non-Hindu woman known to the victim. Somewhere along the relationship, the non-Hindu woman or her family starts forcing/pressurizing the Hindu man to convert. In some of these cases, the association could be non-consensual as well or, the religious identity of the non-Hindu woman could be previously unknown to the Hindu victim. In such cases, the Hindu man is first forced/pressurized to change his religion by the non-Hindu woman or her family. The force/pressure could involve threats. The trigger for directing violence against the Hindu man is in these cases his refusal to comply and change his religion under threat and/or force. In other cases that have been documented, it is also seen that the Hindu partner is assaulted by the non-Hindu woman or her family simply for his relationship with the non-Hindu woman and by virtue of him following the Hindu faith and not the religion of the non-Hindu woman. In such cases, the relationship is consensual in most cases and the religion of both partners is known to the other. Often, in such cases, there is no direct force/pressure to convert either, however, the attack is a result of the Hindu man being in a relationship with the non-Hindu partner and not following her religion/following Hinduism specifically. Such cases are driven by specific religious motivations and against the religious identity of the victim and are therefore qualified as hate crimes. The other category relevant here is- Attack resulting in death and under this, the sub-category selected is- Attacked for Hindu identity. In several cases, Hindus are attacked merely for their Hindu identity without any perceived provocation. A classic example of this category of religiously motivated hate crime is a murder in 2016. 7 ISIS terrorists were convicted for shooting a school principal in Kanpur because they got ‘triggered’ seeing the Kalava on his wrist and tilak that he had put. In this, the Hindu victim had offered no provocation except for his Hindu religious identity. The motivation for the murder was purely religious, driven by religious supremacy. Such cases where Hindus are targeted merely for their religious identity would be documented as a hate crime. Under this category, cases where the attack led to the death of the Hindu victim/s would be documented. In several cases where a Hindu man is in a relationship with a Muslim woman, the family of the Muslim woman ends up assaulting or murdering the man because of their disapproval of the relationship. In such cases, the relationship is consensual and the man and woman are with each other knowing each other’s identity fully well. Such cases are often called ‘honour killings’ and are seen in associations across religions, castes, economic strata etc. In several cases, the motivations are stated and clear. For example, in some cases, the perpetrators would clearly mention what their main motivation to commit the crime was – whether it was because the partner was economically weaker, from a different caste or religion. In some cases, however, the motives are not stated and/or reported. To determine whether such cases are religiously motivated hate crimes, in the absence of a clearly stated motive, one has to understand what could possibly be the main factor which the perpetrator's family would believe diminishes the family’s ‘honour’, leading to the crime. For the purpose of this tracker, we would only be looking at cases where the determining factor of the crime is religion – which is to say that the man belongs to the Hindu faith and the woman to a non-Hindu faith. In such cases, even if the motivation is not stated, it can be said that the determining factor or at least one of the main considerations leading to the crime would be the religious identity of the man, especially if the woman in the relationship is a Muslim. In the Islamic faith, a marriage is deemed illegitimate if the non-Muslim partner does not convert to Islam. For those who practice the faith, when their daughter marries a Hindu man without the man converting to Islam, the difference in religions followed becomes the main point of disapproval for the family of the Muslim woman. Because of the ingrained element of religious supremacy in Islam, even if the motivations are not explicit, it can reasonably be concluded as one of the determining factors of the assault or murder committed by the Muslim family against the Hindu man. For that reason, such crimes are considered hate crimes and form a part of this database.