Minor Hindu girl molested, abused with caste based slurs by a Muslim man

Case Summary
In Hapur, a Muslim man named Sahib along with his two friends, molested a minor Dalit girl returning home from school. The accused also made obscene gestures towards the girl and pulled her hair. When the girl protested, the accused abused her using casteist slurs. The girl informed her family about this and her father filed a police complaint in the local police station. He stated that, on January 9, she was returning home from her college, when a Muslim youth of the village arrived on a bike with his two friends. During this, the accused stopped the girl in the middle of the road and removed the cap from her head, he teased and insulted her by obscenely pulling her hair. They also abused her using casteist words. When the girl raised an alarm, the accused fled from the spot. Hapur police gave information and stated that on the complaint of the victim's father, a case was registered against the accused under the relevant BNS section. The accused was arrested and sent to jail.
Why it is Hate Crime ?
This case has been added to the tracker under the prime category of- Hate speech against Hindus. Under this, the sub-category selected is- Anti-Hindu slurs, mocking faith. Anti-Hindu slurs and the deliberate mocking of the Hindu faith owing to religious animosity involve the usage of derogatory terms, stereotypes, or offensive references to religious practices, symbols, or figures. One of the common anti-Hindu slurs used against Hindus is “cow-worshipper” and “cow piss drinker”. The intention of using this term is to demean and mock Hindus as a group and their religious beliefs since Hindus consider the cow holy. Additionally, some symbols and the slurs attached to them have a historical context that exacerbates the insult, hate, stereotyping, dehumanisation and oppression against Hindus. Cow worship has been used for centuries to denigrate Hindus, insult their faith and oppress Hindus specifically as a religious group. There has been overwhelming documentation about how cow slaughter has been used to persecute Hindus with cow meat being thrown in temples and places of worship. There has also been overwhelming documentation where cow meat (beef) has been force-fed to Hindus to either forcefully convert them to Islam or denigrate their faith. Apart from cow worship, the Swastika – which holds deep religious significance for the Hindus – has also been misinterpreted and distorted to use as a slur against Hindus. Similarly, the worship of the Shivling has been used by supremacist ideologies and religions to denigrate Hindus owing to religious animosity. Such slurs and denigration stem out of inherent animosity and hate towards Hindus and their faith, therefore, it is categorised as hate speech targeted at Hindus specifically owing to their religious identity. In this case, a Hindu minor girl was harassed by two Muslim men, however, the caste-based slur hurled at her serves as a religious marker in this case. It can be argued that a caste-specific slur is aimed at her micro identity of belonging to the Dalit section of the Hindu community and not her Hindu identity itself. However, as far as Abrahamic religions are concerned, the micro identities of caste, region, and language are secondary. It is the religious identity that drives the animosity of the perpetrator against the Hindu victim. In this case, while Qadir hurled caste abuses at the victim, the animosity was driven by his animosity towards Hinduism and Hindus. Therefore, the fact that caste slurs were hurled at the victim by the perpetrators makes it a religiously motivated hate crime against the victim.
Victim Details
Total Victim
1
Deceased
0
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
Arrested

Perpetrators Details
Perpetrators
Muslim Extremists
Perpetrators Range
From 2 To 5
Perpetrators Gender
male