4 including a pastor lure Hindu woman with a job, thereafter rape her, torture her family; force her to convert to Christianity

Case ID : d8828f8 | Location : Nashik, Maharashtra, India | Date of Incident : Tue, 29 November, 2022

Case ID : d8828f8

Nashik, Maharashtra, India

29 November, 2022

4 including a pastor lure Hindu woman with a job, thereafter rape her, torture her family; force her to convert to Christianity

Predatory Proselytisation

Conversion/ attempts to convert by inducement

Harassment, threats, coercion for conversion

Case Summary

In the Davat Mala area of the Sinnar, Nasik in Maharashtra, the Police arrested four persons for raping a 35-year-old Hindu woman, torturing her family, and forcing her to convert to Christianity. The victim, in the complaint, mentioned that the accused had been torturing her and her family for a year. They had trapped the woman and raped her several times since November 2022. The saga began on November 30 last year when the woman stepped out of the house in search of a job. She was suddenly stopped by two women accused namely Butti and Prerna, while she was on her way to Musalgaon for a job inquiry. On the pretext of getting her a job, the duo introduced her to the third accused. The victim was kept locked in a room, After some time, Pastor Rahul arrived at the spot and forced her to have a red drink which made her unconscious. The third accused, Bhausaheb then raped her. The accused woman took the victim’s gold necklace (Mangalsutra) and tied a black thread around her neck to signify that she had been converted to Christianity. The victim woman also said that Pastor Rahul and Bhausaheb arrived with a 40-year-old unidentified man and the three raped her on December 2. They physically assaulted her and threatened to kill her if she attempted to tell anyone about the rape. On December 17, the husband of the victim, who had been searching for her since her abduction, happened to reach the spot. He was accompanied by his younger son. The duo was threatened and asked to leave. On refusal, Bhausaheb caught the little boy and trapped him. He hit the kid and forced him to beg for them on the streets. The husband of the victim, however, sought help and managed to save his wife and his kid on December 29. The accused then asked the victim and her family to leave Sinnar immediately and keep their mouth shut. On February 4, a case was registered and the police arrested the 4 accused under IPC sections 323, 328, 344, 376D, 504, 506, 34, and 76(1) of the Juvenile Justice (Care and Protection of Children) Act, 2015.

Why it is Hate Crime ?

This particular case has been classified as a religiously motivated hate crime under two subcategories under Predatory Proselytisation because of the various distinct components that demonstrate the perpetrator's bias against the Hindu faith and their deliberate attempt to alienate the victims from their Hindu identity. Because of the case's specifics, we have put this case under the prime category: Predatory Proselytization and to narrow down the search further we have chosen the subcategory harassment, threat, coercion for conversion' under this core category in addition to conversion by inducement. 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 has 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, forceful circumcision etc. 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 to ensure the Hindu victim abandons his/her professed religion and adopts the religion of the perpetrator. In this subcategory, we would only include cases where the victim was harassed, threatened or coerced to convert. Cases where attempts were made to convert but the victim resisted 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 second sub-category under 'Predatory Proselytisation' relevant in this case is conversion by inducement. Predatory Proselytisation is not just limited to threat, harassment, force and violence, but it also has contours of stealth. In several cases, the Hindu victim is exploited to convert, with non-Hindus taking advantage of their poverty. In such cases, the Hindu victim who is suffering financially is offered monetary benefits, including lucrative offers for jobs, health treatment, education, etc, to induce the victim into changing his/her religion. In such cases, the religious identity of the victim and the aim to disenfranchise him from his faith form the heart of the crime. Also, taking advantage of and exploiting an individual’s economic vulnerabilities is widely acknowledged as exploitation, forms of which are often penalised by law. Such cases therefore are considered religiously motivated hate crimes since the victim’s religious identity forms the very heart of the crime itself. In this specific case, elements of both these subcategories were observed. Firstly, it is evident from the details that the Hindu victim belonged to the economically weaker section of the society. The accused were attempting to convert her by offering her the inducement of a job. Further, they were also threatened with harm that would come to her family if she refused to convert. Another element in the case was that the accused sexually assaulted the Hindu victim and tortured her son to intimidate her into acceding to their conversation demands. It is therefore observed that the accused not only attempted to convert the Hindu victim through inducement but also issued threats and harassed her and her family in an attempt to covert her. Since the motivating factor of the crime was the religious identity of the victims and the intention of disenfranchising them from it, the case has been categorised as a hate crime.