Married Hindu woman converts to Islam after a Muslim man brainwashes her through an online game; victim stops going to temples and starts offering namaz
Sikar, Rajasthan, India 
23 June, 2023
Case Summary
Tayyab Khan from Aligarh initiated contact with a Hindu woman from Sikar through the Free Fire game. Subsequently, he influenced her to convert to Islam. The woman, named Harshita, stopped applying vermilion and bindi. She ceased visiting the temple and started offering namaz. She changed her name to Hania. The incident occurred in the Sadar police station area of Sikar district, Rajasthan. Harshita's husband, who resides abroad, was unaware of the situation. She initially played online games to pass the time and joined a group called Love Life, where she connected with Tayyab Khan. Their conversations extended to Instagram, where Tayyab persuaded Harshita to embrace Islam. He continuously brainwashed her with Islamic teachings and convinced her to wear clothing resembling a burqa, eventually leading to her conversion. The victim Harshita shared that Taiyyab Khan used to instigate her to commit suicide if she did not accept Islam. She asserted that after gathering information about her family, Taaiyab tricked her and asked her to accept Islam and offer Namaz. Afterwards, he slowly started telling her about Islam.
Why it is Hate Crime ?
This particular case has been classified as a religiously motivated hate crime under the subcategory: Proselytisation by brainwashing, manipulation or subtle indoctrination, under the core category of Predatory Proselytisation because of the various distinct components that demonstrate the perpetrator's bias against the Hindu faith and the deliberate attempt to alienate the victims from their Hindu identity. 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 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 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. This case has also been categorised under 'hate crimes against women in relationships' under the 'grooming' sub-category and 'victim says she was brainwashed' tertiary category. 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. This case is a distinct case of religiously motivated hate crime as the Hindu victim was forced to give up her professed faith and accept Islam. The Muslim perpetrator, at first, trapped the Hindu victim in his love trap with the hidden intention of converting her to his religion. Trapping someone in a love affair with the malafide intention of conversion is not only ethically problematic but also a sort of harassment that is rooted in animosity towards the victim’s religious identity. Second, the accused was successful in brainwashing the woman to the extent that she not only started practising Islamic principles but also became opposed to her own faith and its practices like visiting the temple or applying sindoor and bindi, a Hindu tradition. Details of the case suggest that the accused specifically singled out and targeted a Hindu woman, which itself stems from the animosity against the Hindu faith, which is why this case qualifies as a hate crime against Hindus and has been documented here.
Victim Details
Total Victim
1
Deceased
0
Gender
- Male 0
- Female 1
- Third Gender 0
- Unknown 0
Caste
- SC/ST 0
- OBC 0
- General 0
- Unknown 1
Age Group
- Minor 0
- Adult 1
- Senior Citizen 0
- Unknown 0
Case Status
Complaint filed
Perpetrators Details
Perpetrators
Muslim Extremists
Perpetrators Range
One Person
Perpetrators Gender
male
Sources 
