Hindu woman abducted by Muslim husband’s friend; force-fed meat, forced to convert to Islam and raped for several days

Case ID : e97a1d4 | Location : Jabalpur, Madhya Pradesh, India | Date of Incident : Wed, 7 June, 2023

Case ID : e97a1d4

Jabalpur, Madhya Pradesh, India

7 June, 2023

Hindu woman abducted by Muslim husband’s friend; force-fed meat, forced to convert to Islam and raped for several days

Predatory Proselytisation

Harassment, threats, coercion for conversion

Case Summary

In Jabalpur, Madhya Pradesh, a 40-year-old married Dalit woman was kidnapped, raped, and coerced into converting to Islam by a 50-year-old Muslim man named Amjad Khan. Khan, reportedly a friend of the victim's husband took advantage of the friendship and abducted the woman from her residence on June 2 at knifepoint and held her hostage in Bhopal for several days where he sexually assaulted her. The accused force-fed the victim meat and forcibly tried to change her religion and convert her to Islam. The victim is a mother of two children. On Monday, June 19, 2023, she filed a complaint against the perpetrator.

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.