Case Summary

In Budaun, Uttar Pradesh, a Hindu woman, a teacher by profession, filed a detailed complaint reporting sustained pressure to convert to Islam and serious threats to her and her minor daughter’s safety by a local cleric, Pappan Peer, also known as Tariq Hussain, son of Anwar Hussain. The perpetrators repeatedly demeaned Hinduism and glorified Islam. The victim was married on 10 February 2019 and has a four-year-old daughter. In her complaint, she described how Pappan Peer had regular access to her marital home and gradually exercised complete influence over her husband and in-laws. Her in-laws began following his instructions unquestioningly. Pappan Peer repeatedly told her that Islam is the only true religion because it believes in one Allah, whereas Hinduism has too many gods. He mocked her faith, questioning how she could worship so many deities and suggesting it was unreasonable. He told her directly that she must convert to Islam, calling it a superior religion. When she refused to abandon her Hindu faith, her husband and in-laws — under Pappan Peer's influence — began harassing her. On 3 April 2024, her mother-in-law filed a false case of domestic violence against her. On 8 April 2024, her husband filed for divorce. These actions were orchestrated by Pappan Peer to isolate and punish her for resisting conversion. The victim reported that she has been systematically targeted and silenced. Whenever she approached the local police station or filed complaints through official portals, her grievances were dismissed or distorted. The police, acting on the instructions of Pappan Peer, deliberately filed misleading reports that portrayed her negatively. She was told directly by Pappan Peer: “You can file as many complaints as you want — the police will never support you.” The victim clearly reported that she and her daughter face an imminent threat to their life, religion, and dignity from Tariq Hussain alias Pappan Peer. She held him solely responsible if anything untoward were to happen to them. She urged the police to file an FIR and take immediate action to ensure their safety. To terrorise her further, Pappan Peer sent her a letter written by mafia don Atiq Ahmed from jail — a document he proudly shared to intimidate her and prove his underworld connections. He openly boasted about his links with Atiq Ahmed and Ashraf and told her that eventually she would be forced to surrender and convert. He issued repeated threats through anonymous phone calls late at night, which continue to this day. She provided call records from the threatening numbers along with her complaint. At the date of writing this report, the matter was under investigation.

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Why it is Hate Crime ?

This case has been added to the tracker under the primary category of: - Predatory Proselytisation. Within it, the sub-category selected is: - Harassment, threats, coercion for conversion. 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. 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 selected here is: - Attempting to convert/converting by denigrating Hinduism. In several cases, Hindus are converted or an attempt is made to convert Hindus by denigrating their faith, Hinduism. In such cases, the Hindus associate with the non-Hindu perpetrators often by choice and then, the attempt to convert them by insulting their faith, showing the faith down etc begins. An example of this would be a non-Hindu gathering where the Hindus are attending the gathering of their own free will. However, once they attend the gathering, there is an explicit attempt to convert them by abusing their faith and hailing the faith of the perpetrator. The denigration of the Hindu faith is often based on misrepresentation of the Hindu faith, its doctrine and scriptures and insult to espoused traditions if not blatant lies about Hindu beliefs and ways. Such conversions or attempts at conversions are driven by animosity towards the Hindu faith and are therefore documented as religiously motivated hate crimes. The third sub-category selected here is: - Proselytisation by grooming, brainwashing, manipulation or subtle indoctrination, with the tertiary category being: - 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, the Hindu victim and her minor daughter were subjected to persistent harassment and intimidation by Pappan Peer (Tariq Hussain), whose objective was to compel them to convert to Islam. The pressure was not generic or interpersonal — it was directly linked to her being Hindu and choosing to remain so. The threats, legal harassment (false cases), and psychological intimidation were not aimed at gaining material benefit, but rather at punishing her refusal to abandon her faith. When a person is harassed in a targeted manner for practising or defending their religion, and the intention is to induce them to change it, such actions constitute hate-motivated coercion. The hate lies in the rejection and hostility toward the victim’s continued adherence to Hinduism. Therefore, this case falls under religiously motivated harassment and coercion, with the objective of forced religious conversion, making it a clear hate crime. The act of mocking the presence of multiple deities in Hinduism or declaring Hindu beliefs as inferior is not neutral persuasion — it is religious denigration intended to generate shame or self-rejection in the victim. The purpose of such denigration is to make the victim feel that their own religion is unworthy and must be abandoned. This method is based on contempt and ideological hostility toward Hinduism, which qualifies as hate speech and religious humiliation. It turns the conversion attempt into a discriminatory act rooted in hatred for the Hindu faith. It is important to note here that the victim's daughter was a minor, thus incapable of providing informed consent to such conversion activities. It is a well-established fact that children are more susceptible to manipulation since they are still developing emotionally, cognitively, and socially. Their brains are not fully mature, making them more vulnerable. This case demonstrates a calculated strategy of targeting those who are less able to resist or understand the long-term implications of conversion, making it a significant case of religious-motivated hate crime. This behaviour stems from inherent hostility towards the victim's professed faith, since Abrahamic faiths believe that any non-adherent to the faith is subject to being dehumanised till they convert. Thus, the conversion efforts here were not just normal proselytisation efforts; instead, they were rooted in religious hatred. Since such predatory actions stem from doctrinal animosity towards the Hindu faith and its adherents, this case is being documented as a religiously motivated hate crime. Disclaimer: It is important to clarify that the report does not specify the exact date when the woman’s ordeal began. But the victim filed the FIR on 1st July 2025. Therefore, for documentation purposes, we have recorded this date as the incident date.