Hindu man found dead, parents blame Muslim girl's family who were against their consensual inter-faith marriage

Case ID : e97a6cc | Location : Vaishali, Bihar, India | Date of Incident : Sun, 14 January, 2024

Case ID : e97a6cc

Vaishali, Bihar, India

14 January, 2024

Hindu man found dead, parents blame Muslim girl's family who were against their consensual inter-faith marriage

Men attacked for being associated with non-Hindu women

Killed by non-Hindu partner's family

Attack resulting in death

Attacked for Hindu identity

Case Summary

On January 15, 2024, the body of a 24-year-old Hindu man named Santosh Kumar Chaudhary was discovered hanging from a tree in Bihar's Vaishali district, merely a month after marrying his Muslim partner, Mosrath Khatun. Santosh's family accused Mosrath's relatives of being involved in his death. Santosh, from Bahuara village, had been romantically involved with Mosrath for three years. They married in December 2023, and despite her father's accusation of kidnapping, Mosrath affirmed her choice to be with Santosh. However, Santosh went missing on January 14, and his body was found the next day. Santosh's family lodged a complaint against Mosrath's relatives, a Sub-Inspector, and a Sarpanch. They believe Mosrath's father, Shaukat Ali, and others were involved in Santosh's murder. The father of the Hindu youth himself testified that his son was killed by his Muslim partner's family, evidently because they did not approve of their daughter marrying a man who was an adherent of Hinduism and not Islam. Villagers protested on the Mahua-Tajpur road, demanding justice.

Why it is Hate Crime ?

When Hindu men are in a relationship with non-Hindu women, there are cases where the man is forced/pressured to convert his religion and upon his refusal to do so, the family of the non-Hindu partner murders the victim. Such relationships may be consensual with the religious identity of the non-Hindu woman known to the victim. Somewhere along the relationship, the non-Hindu woman and her family start forcing/pressurizing the Hindu man to convert. In some of these cases, the association could be non-consensual as well or, the religious identity of the non-Muslim woman could be previously unknown to the Hindu victim. In such cases, the Hindu man is first forced/pressurized to change his religion by the non-Hindu woman’s family. The pressure could involve threats. The trigger to murdering the Hindu man in these cases is his refusal to comply and change his religion under threat and/or force. In other cases that have been documented, it is also seen that the Hindu partner is murdered by the family of the non-Hindu woman simply for his relationship with the non-Hindu woman and by virtue of him following the Hindu faith and not the religion of the non-Hindu woman. In such cases, the relationship is consensual in most cases and the religion of both partners is known to the other. Often, in such cases, there is no direct force/pressure to convert either, however, the murder is a result of the Hindu man being in a relationship with the non-Hindu partner and not following her religion/following Hinduism specifically. Such cases are driven by specific religious motivations and against the religious identity of the victim and are therefore qualified as hate crimes. Now, in this case, even though the Muslim partner's family killed the Hindu youth since the motive for the crime isn't laid out explicitly, people may argue that it is possible that the crime was not motivated by religion, and as such, it should not be included in this tracker. Therefore, at this point, it becomes essential to understand why then, we have added this case to the Hindu hate tracker. In this case, two primary factors establish that it was a religiously motivated hate crime. The first component which makes it worthy of being documented as a religiously motivated hate crime is the testimony of the family of the victim. The father of the Hindu youth himself testified that his son was killed by his Muslim partner's family, evidently because they did not approve of their daughter marrying a man who was an adherent of Hinduism and not Islam. Second, this case should be included in this database because the victim is no longer alive and there is a precedent of such cases turning out to be hate crimes. In several cases where a Hindu man is in a relationship with a Muslim woman, the family of the Muslim woman ends up assaulting or murdering the man because of their disapproval of the relationship. In such cases, the relationship is consensual and the man and woman are with each other knowing each other’s identity fully well. Such cases are often called ‘honour killings’ and are seen in associations across religions, castes, economic strata etc. In several cases, the motivations are stated and clear. For example, in some cases, the perpetrators would clearly mention what their main motivation to commit the crime was – whether it was because the partner was economically weaker, from a different caste or religion, In some cases, however, the motives are not stated and/or reported. To determine whether such cases are religiously motivated hate crimes, in the absence of a clearly stated motive, one has to understand what could possibly be the main factor which the perpetrator's family would believe diminishes the family’s ‘honour’, leading to the crime. For the purpose of this tracker, we would only be looking at cases where the determining factor of the crime is religion – which is to say that the man belongs to the Hindu faith and the woman to a non-Hindu faith. In such cases, even if the motivation is not stated, it can be said that the determining factor or at least one of the main considerations leading to the crime would be the religious identity of the man, especially if the woman in the relationship is a Muslim. In the Islamic faith, a marriage is deemed illegitimate if the non-Muslim partner does not convert to Islam. For those who practice the faith, when their daughter marries a Hindu man without the man converting to Islam, the difference in religions followed becomes the main point of disapproval for the family of the Muslim woman. Because of the ingrained element of religious supremacy in Islam, even if the motivations are not explicit, it can reasonably be concluded as one of the determining factors of the assault or murder committed by the Muslim family against the Hindu man. For that reason, such crimes are considered hate crimes and form a part of this database.