Minor Dalit girl raped, Muslim man hurls identity based slurs, impregnates her and threatens to kill her family
Hubli, Karnataka, India 
2 May, 2024
Case Summary
On May 3, 2024, a 19-year-old accused named Saddam Hussein was arrested on charges of raping a minor Dalit girl for months and impregnating her in Karnataka’s Hubballi. The accused raped the 17-year-old girl several times between January 1 and May 3. The accused had known the survivor through school, and castigated, abused and threatened her, the police said. The victim’s family had taken their minor daughter to a hospital for ‘abdominal pain’ where the hospital management informed them that the minor was pregnant. As per reports, the hospital authorities immediately informed the police that an incident of a minor girl being pregnant came to light. The mother of the victim accused Saddam for her rape and further revealed that Hussein had threatened the mother with dire consequences like death if she filed a complaint against him. He also hurled casteist abuses at the victim. While the Police were taking Saddam Hussein to the station for arrest formalities, he assaulted two officers. In response, the Police fired shots in self-defense, injuring Hussein's left leg.
Why it is Hate Crime ?
This case is being added to three primary categories. The first primary category is 'attack not resulting in death' under the sub-category '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. The second primary category is 'hate speech against Hindus' under the sub-category '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. The third primary category is 'Predatory Proselytisation' under the sub-category 'Proselytisation by grooming, brainwashing, subtle indoctrination or manipulation' under the tertiary category 'rape/sexual assault'. 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, a minor Dalit girl was sexually abused and raped for a prolonged period of time with caste based slurs being hurled at her. While the rape is a heinous crime ab initio, what proves that this case is one of a religiously motivated hate crime is the fact that the parents of the minor victim attested to the fact that identity based slurs were hurled at the victim. 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. When cases of rape/sexual harassment coupled with indicators of religious motivations (the identity based slurs in this case), it is also a case of predatory proselytisation since the victim was selected specifically for her religious identity. A minor has no agency to consent to a sexual relationship and therefore, such crimes coupled with slurs have the effect of disenfranchising the victim from her faith. For that reason, this case is being documented as a religiously motivated hate crime.
Victim Details
Total Victim
2
Deceased
0
Gender
- Male 0
- Female 2
- Third Gender 0
- Unknown 0
Caste
- SC/ST 2
- OBC 0
- General 0
- Unknown 0
Age Group
- Minor 1
- Adult 1
- Senior Citizen 0
- Unknown 0
Case Status
Arrested
Perpetrators Details
Perpetrators
Muslim Extremists
Perpetrators Range
One Person
Perpetrators Gender
male
Sources 
