Muslim man of Chhattisgarh establishes sexual relationship with his Hindu girlfriend, assaults for refusing to convert

Case ID : e97a574 | Location : Bilaspur, Chhattisgarh, India | Date of Incident : Thu, 29 June, 2023

Case ID : e97a574

Bilaspur, Chhattisgarh, India

29 June, 2023

Muslim man of Chhattisgarh establishes sexual relationship with his Hindu girlfriend, assaults for refusing to convert

Crimes against women in relationships and other sexual crimes

Assault or threat upon refusal to convert

Rape for refusal to convert

Case Summary

In Bilaspur, Chhattisgarh, a man named Aqib Javed befriended a young Hindu woman, developed a relationship with her, and then started pressuring her to convert to Islam. Upon refusal, he physically assaulted her. He also established a sexual relationship with her on the pretext of marrying her. A case was registered on the orders of the Inspector General. The girl’s medical examination was conducted on Friday, 30th June 2023. Police arrested the accused Aqib Javed (22) and sent him behind bars. Initially, Aqib Javed had promised the victim a job, and after securing her employment in the private sector, he coerced her into physical relations. This pattern of abuse continued thereafter. The victim recounted to the police that in 2022, on Aqib's birthday, she informed him about her pregnancy, prompting him to assault her. Despite her intention to file a complaint, he persuaded her otherwise and forcibly administered medication for an abortion. Subsequently, when she became pregnant again, she was taken to Kota, where she was subjected to physical assault and coerced into taking abortion pills. Further, Aqib Javed confiscated her iPhone and, on another occasion, attempted to steal cash and jewellery from her room. When her sister intervened, he pushed her away. To avoid further repercussions, Aqib Javed apologised and confessed to gambling with the jewellery as collateral.

Why it is Hate Crime ?

In this case, there are two distinct components which prove that the offence was committed coupled with a bias hence this case has been classified as a religious hate crime. The first factor is that the Muslim perpetrator assaulted the victim after she refused to accede to his conversion demands. When Hindu women are in a relationship with non-Hindu men, there are cases where the woman faces threats or assault after she refuses to convert and change her religious identity owing to pressure/force by the non-Hindu man. Such relationships may be consensual with the religious identity of the non-Hindu man known to the victim. Somewhere along the relationship, the non-Hindu man starts pressurizing the Hindu woman to convert to Islam and upon her refusal, assaults or threatens the victim. Such cases are driven by specific religious motivations and against the religious identity of the victim and are therefore qualified as hate crimes. Cases where the Hindu woman converts to Islam and does not file a complaint about the force or threat, are not considered a part of the hate tracker, even though, it may be argued that the woman was brainwashed or threatened to convert to Islam. The second component in this case which makes it worthy of being documented as a religiously motivated hate crime is that the Muslim perpetrator raped the Hindu victim when she refused to accede to his conversion demands. When Hindu women are in a relationship with non-Hindu men, there are cases where the woman faces pressure/threats/violence to convert and change her religious identity by the non-Hindu man. Such relationships may be consensual with the religious identity of the non-Hindu man known to the victim. Somewhere along the relationship, the non-Hindu man starts pressuring the Hindu woman to convert. In some of these cases, the association could be non-consensual as well or, the religious identity of the non-Muslim man could be previously unknown to the Hindu victim. As the case may be, in such cases, the non-Hindu man forces himself sexually on the Hindu woman when she refuses his advances and pressures to convert her religion. The rape of the woman is often seen as either a punishment for the woman refusing to convert. Such cases are driven by specific religious motivations and against the religious identity of the victim and are therefore qualified as hate crimes.