Ibrahim Khan rapes, threatens to kill minor Hindu girl after she rejects his advances, forces her to observe Roza and go to Masjid

Case ID : d1fb6cb | Location : Mumbai, Maharashtra, India | Date of Incident : Tue, 7 November, 2023

Case ID : d1fb6cb

Mumbai, Maharashtra, India

7 November, 2023

Ibrahim Khan rapes, threatens to kill minor Hindu girl after she rejects his advances, forces her to observe Roza and go to Masjid

Predatory Proselytisation

Harassment, threats, coercion for conversion

Case Summary

Maharashtra police booked Ibrahim Khan for brutally raping a 14-year-old Hindu girl and threatening her with death. The accused first trapped the minor girl into a relationship and then forcefully established sexual relations with her. The incident is said to have happened in the Kashigaon area of Mumbai in November 2023. The victim had recently shifted to the locality with her sister after her parents died. Accused Ibrahim Khan stayed in the neighbourhood of the victim and used to watch the victim daily. The accused then approached the victim and told her that he wanted to spend his life with her. He also proposed to the girl for marriage. The girl took some time to respond. However, later, he barged into her home when she was all alone and harassed her. He forced himself upon the girl saying that he intended to marry her. He raped her after she refused. He sexually assaulted the girl in December 2023. He also abused the girl and said that if she failed to fulfil all his desires, he would kill her. He also once took the girl to a nearby Masjid and asked her to observe Roza (fast as per Islamic ritual) and follow Islamic traditions. The complaint was filed by the victim on May 3, 2024, after the accused again barged into the home of the victim, abused and threatened to kill her.

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. In this case, the Hindu victim was a minor. The act of establishing a relationship with her is a crime under POCSO ab initio. Coupled with that, the Muslim perpetrator raped the victim and attempted to forcefully convert her to Islam by taking her to a mosque and attempting to force her to observe Roza (Islamic fast). He further forced the minor Hindu victim to follow Islamic traditions, contrary to her professed faith and threatened to kill her for refusal. Beyond the ab initio crime of being in a relationship with a minor, the perpetrator also raped and threatened the minor victim for her refusal and forcefully tried to disenfranchise her from her professed faith. Since the faith of the minor girl was one of the prime components of the crime, this case is being classified as a religiously motivated hate crime.