Minor Dalit Hindu girl raped under pretext of marriage, held hostage, victim's parents subjected to casteist slurs and death threats

Case ID : e274b74 | Location : Sonbhadra, Uttar Pradesh, India | Date of Incident : Sat, 15 March, 2025

Case ID : e274b74

Sonbhadra, Uttar Pradesh, India

15 March, 2025

Minor Dalit Hindu girl raped under pretext of marriage, held hostage, victim's parents subjected to casteist slurs and death threats

Crimes against women in relationships and other sexual crimes

Brainwashed and/or groomed

Rape and sexual assault/harassment

Hate speech against Hindus

Anti-Hindu slurs, mocking faith

Violent threats

Case Summary

In the Sonbhadra district in Uttar Pradesh, a 15-year-old Hindu Dalit girl was lured into a relationship by a Muslim man on the false promise of marriage. Following this, the accused brutally raped her, and then held captive in his home for many days. Even her parents were subjected to caste-based slurs and death threats when they confronted the accused. According to the media reports, the accused is identified as Shahzad Ansari. He had called the victim at his residence. He then raped her on the pretext of marriage. After this, the Muslim accused held the minor girl hostage and prevented her from leaving the house or contacting her parents. Desperate to see their daughter, when her traumatised parents arrived at Shahzad's house, he cruelly barred them from meeting her. Thereafter, he also hurled vicious casteist slurs at the girl’s parents and issued death threats to them. Faced with this ordeal, the victim’s mother approached the Chopan police station and filed a detailed written complaint, detailing the rape, unlawful confinement, caste-based abuse, and threats. The police promptly acted and registered a case against the accused Shahzad under sections 65(1), 127(2), 352, 351(3) of the IPC, section 3/4 of the POCSO Act and sections 3(2)(v), 3(1)(d), 3(1)(DH) of the SC/ST Act. Following this, the police arrested the accused, Shahzad Ansari and then interrogated him. The police then conducted further investigations into this matter.

Why it is Hate Crime ?

This case has been added to the tracker under the primary category- Crimes against women in relationships and other sexual crimes. Within this, the subcategory selected is- Brainwashed and/or Groomed. The tertiary category selected is- Rape and sexual assault/ harassment. In our database, we have not added incidents where women have converted to another religion of their free will and no allegations of forced/involuntary conversion have been made. However, there are certain cases of conversion where the consent itself is a result of the brainwashing or grooming of a minor by the non-Hindu perpetrator trying to victimise a woman for her Hindu religious identity. The phenomenon of grooming points to non-Hindu perpetrators identifying their Hindu victims’ vulnerabilities and exploiting them over months and sometimes years, to extract the supposed ‘consent’ in order to convert their religion. In most cases of grooming, the victims are minors or the grooming started when the victim was a minor. In other cases of grooming, the non-Hindu perpetrator brainwashes and grooms a minor victim to extract their trust and then proceeds to rape them repeatedly with the intent of converting them to their faith. It is pertinent to understand here that when the victim is a minor, the ‘consent’ to convert or enter into a romantic relationship with an adult itself is redundant – addressed by POCSO. While every case of conversion of a minor and incidents of establishing a physical relationship with a minor by an adult is a crime, for the purpose of this database, a case would be considered a hate crime only if there is a distinct religious angle to the grooming. For example, in the UK, if a Hindu minor is targeted by Pakistani grooming gangs, it would be considered a hate crime because the victims are specifically targeted owing to their non-Muslim religious identity with the perpetrators being Muslim. In other cases, if a Hindu minor is brainwashed into entering a physical relationship with the non-Hindu adult perpetrator and the family alleges grooming/brainwashing of the minor to convert her religion, it would form a part of this database. If the victim is a Hindu adult, the case would form a part of this database only if the victim herself says that she was brainwashed/groomed to convert her religion. However, if the victim is deceased (murdered or otherwise), the case would form a part of this database if her family/friends provided testimony that the victim was brainwashed/groomed to convert her religion. Since these crimes have a distinct religious angle where the victim is being targeted owing to her Hindu religious identity, these cases are considered a hate crime. Another primary category relevant in this case is- Hate Speech against Hindus. Within this, the subcategory selected is- 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 other subcategory selected is- Violent Threats. Violent threats, explicit, implicit or implied, is the most dangerous form of hate speech since it goes beyond discriminatory and prejudicial language to express the intent of causing harm to an individual or a group of people based on their religious identity and faith. There could be several different kinds of threats that are issued to Hindus based on religious animosity. An explicit threat would mean the direct threat of violence towards an individual Hindu, a group of Hindus or Hindus at large. Physical violence, death threats, threats of destruction of property belonging to Hindus and threats of genocide would mean explicit threats against Hindus for their religious identity. Implicit threats may not be a direct threat but implied through the use of symbols of actions – for example – in the Nupur Sharma case, other than explicit threats, there were also implicit threats when Islamists took to the streets to burn and beat her effigies. It implies that they want to do the same to Nupur Sharma – thereby is considered an implicit threat. Violent threats can be delivered in person, through letters, phone calls, graffiti, or increasingly through social media and other online platforms. It would be important to understand that a threat – explicit or implicit, online or offline – to an individual who happens to be a Hindu does not qualify as a religiously motivated threat. Such a threat, while vile and dangerous, could be owing to non-religious reasons and/or personal animosity. To qualify as a religiously motivated threat, it would need to exhibit an indication that the individual is being targeted for religious reasons and/or owing to his/her religious identity as a Hindu. In this case, a minor Dalit Hindu girl was lured into a relationship by a Muslim man and subsequently raped under the pretext of marriage. It is crucial to emphasise that the victim was a minor; therefore, any notion of consent or genuine change of conscience was absent from the outset. Minors, by virtue of their age and lack of maturity and are especially vulnerable to manipulation and coercion. They are often unable to fully comprehend the consequences of entering into a romantic or sexual relationship with an adult. This demonstrates a premeditated effort by the Muslim perpetrator to exploit the minor Hindu victim due to her vulnerability. The act of raping the Hindu girl under the pretext of marriage and then holding her hostage highlights the perpetrator’s intent to take advantage of her trust and make her comply with all his demands. In many such similar cases, the Muslim perpetrators specifically target minor Hindu girls for sexual exploitation. Such acts are driven by deep-seated animosity towards the victim’s faith and identity. The religious motive behind the crime became crystal clear when the victim’s family was subjected to caste-based slurs by the Muslim perpetrator. It could be argued that these slurs targeted the micro-identity of the victim and her family as a Dalit within the Hindu community. 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. In this case, the Muslim perpetrator hurled casteist slurs at the victim's parents. This showcases that the Muslim perpetrator had deep-seated animosity towards the victim and her faith. The use of caste slurs by the perpetrator further underscores the religiously motivated nature of the crime. Furthermore, the victim’s parents were subjected to death threats, demonstrating the extent of hatred the Muslim perpetrator harboured towards Hindus. The fact that Hindu parents were subjected to death threats by the Muslim perpetrator for simply attempting to protect their daughter from being sexually exploited showcases that such actions are carried out not only to exploit the girl due to her faith, but also to use intimidation and force as a tool to silence the victim and her Hindu family. Such acts are carried out by Muslim perpetrators due to indoctrination by the Islamic theology, which advocates that all non-Muslims (referred to as kafirs) are inferior and subject to subjugation unless they convert to Islam or live under Islamic rule (dhimmitude). These ideas are not mere abstractions; they manifest in actions where non-Muslims, especially Hindus in India, are seen as targets for religious domination, coercion, or humiliation. This theological framework fosters an "us versus them" mindset, in which any assertion of Hindu identity or religious freedom is seen not only as undesirable but as a threat to Islamic supremacy. As a result, perpetrators who are shaped by such teachings feel justified, even morally obligated, to harass, suppress, or violently attack Hindus, particularly when Hindus assert their religious rights or resist conversion. Such acts, therefore, are not isolated but driven by a broader ideological hostility towards Hindus as non-believers and reflect an attempt to impose religious dominance. Since this case was also not a random isolated incident of grooming of a minors but a premeditated attack motivated by bias and hatred against the Hindu community, which is a defining feature of hate crimes, this has been added to the tracker. Given that this case meets multiple parameters for a religiously motivated hate crime, it is being added to the hate crime database.