Hindu minor repeatedly raped by Abdul and his brother Irfan, forced to go to mosque, hair chopped off when she refused to wear burqa
Chitrakoot, Uttar Pradesh, India 
11 May, 2024
Case Summary
In Uttar Pradesh’s Chitrakoot, a case of forced conversion and harassment was reported wherein two Muslim brothers repeatedly raped a minor Hindu girl before forcing her to observe Roza and convert to Islam. The victim said that it began in the year 2022, in Tarunha village. She used to be followed everywhere, even to the temple and school, by Abdul Rehman, a native of Chougalia Tarunha. She repeatedly rejected his advances towards friendship, but he persisted anyhow, even resorting to threats. Owing to fear, she did not inform her family about Abdul’s actions. Abdul used blackmail to repeatedly rape her. Abdul, meanwhile, got married to a different woman. Irfan, Abdul's younger brother, then started to pursue the victim. He used the victim's history with his brother as leverage to rape her too. The accused threatened to harm her and her family. The accused enticed the victim with the prospect of marriage. He drove her to Pune on March 30. Then he started forcing her to go to the mosque. When the victim refused to put on a burqa, Irfan chopped off her hair. Tired of the harassment, the victim eventually lodged a complaint with the police.
Why it is Hate Crime ?
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 have 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 and forceful circumcision. 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 in an attempt to make the Hindu victim abandon his/her professed religion and adopt the religion of the perpetrator. In this sub-category, we would include cases where the non-Hindu perpetrator harassed, threatened or coerced the victim to convert, however, the Hindu victim did not convert to another faith. Cases where the victim was converted owing to the harassment and threats 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 'rape and sexual assault' 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, either of the Muslim perpetrators pursuing the minor and promising her marriage is a crime ab initio under POCSO. However, there are added elements in the case that make this a religiously motivated hate crime. The first perpetrator raped the Hindu minor by issuing threats. The second perpetrator, who was the brother of the first, not only raped her but also forced her to go to the mosque. When the minor victim refused to wear a burqa, the Muslim perpetrator harassed her by chopping off her hair. It is evident that for both the brothers, the professed faith of the victim was also a factor in her dehumanisation. This is supported by the fact that the second perpetrator forced her to convert to Islam and upon refusal, indulged in harassment and violence. Since the faith of the minor victim formed one of the core elements of the crime, this case is being characterised as a religiously motivated hate crime.
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
Complaint filed
Perpetrators Details
Perpetrators
Muslim Extremists
Perpetrators Range
From 2 To 5
Perpetrators Gender
male
Sources 
