Muslim youths harass a Hindu youth in Madhya Pradesh, forces him to consume drugs, eat meat and convert to Islam
Bhopal, Madhya Pradesh, India 
18 June, 2023
Case Summary
A video circulating on Twitter on June 19 showed five youths, Faizan, Bilal, Sameer, Mufid, and Sahil, subjecting a Hindy boy named Vijay to brutal harassment and torture. The video, which went viral, showed the accused making Vijay kneel down like a dog, tying a noose around his neck, and forcing him to bark and seek forgiveness. The accused also used abusive language towards the victim's family and threw him mercilessly. Vijay's family said that the accused forced him to consume drugs, eat meat and convert to Islam
Why it is Hate Crime ?
Because of the case's specifics, we have put this case under the prime category 'Predatory Proselytization' of the hate tracker and to narrow down the search further we have chosen the sub-category 'attempting to convert by harassment/threat' under this core category. 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. This case is a distinct case of religiously motivated hate crime as the Muslim perpetrators employed threat and coercion to attempt to get the Hindu victim to give up his professed faith and accept Islam. The victim's family testified that their son was put through immense torture for conversion. He was forced to consume drugs and meat and compelled to give up his faith. This is done when the perpetrator holds disdain for the victim's professed faith, which is Hinduism and harbours a clear intention to proselytise the Hindu victim. 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.
Victim Details
Total Victim
1
Deceased
0
Gender
- Male 1
- Female 0
- Third Gender 0
- Unknown 0
Caste
- SC/ST 0
- OBC 0
- General 0
- Unknown 1
Age Group
- Minor 0
- Adult 0
- Senior Citizen 0
- Unknown 1
Case Status
Complaint filed
Perpetrators Details
Perpetrators
Muslim Extremists
Perpetrators Range
From 2 To 5
Perpetrators Gender
male
Sources 
