Two minor Dalit girls sexually assaulted by Muslim shopkeeper, casteist slurs hurled at their families
Pilibhit, Uttar Pradesh, India 
29 April, 2025
Case Summary
In Pilibhit, Uttar Pradesh, two minor Dalit girls aged 5 and 6 were sexually assaulted by a Muslim shopkeeper. The accused assaulted them brutally, which caused bleeding from their private parts. The parents of the victims who went to confront the accused were abused with casteist slurs. According to news reports, the two victims were neighbours. On the day of the incident, both girls had gone to a nearby grocery shop to buy something. The owner of the shop was a Muslim man who lured them and took them inside the shop and sexually assaulted them. The girls started bleeding from their private parts. After returning home, both girls informed their family members about the incident. The families then went to the grocery shop to confront the accused. Upon reaching the location, the accused began hurling casteist slurs and abusing the victims’ families. The families filed an official complaint at the Hazara Police Station. The officer in charge, Siddharth Upadhyay, stated that a report was registered following the complaint. He confirmed that both girls were sent for medical examination and that search teams had been deployed to locate the accused. The police assured the families that the perpetrator would be apprehended.
Why it is Hate Crime ?
The first category selected here is- Hate Speech against Hindus, and within this the subcategory is- Anti-Hindu slurs, mocking faith. Anti-Hindu slurs and the deliberate mocking of the Hindu faith owing to religious animosity involve the usage of derogatory terms, stereotypes, or offensive references to religious practices, symbols, or figures. One of the common anti-Hindu slurs used against Hindus is “cow-worshipper” and “cow piss drinker”. The intention of using this term is to demean and mock Hindus as a group and their religious beliefs since Hindus consider the cow holy. Additionally, some symbols and the slurs attached to them have a historical context that exacerbates the insult, hate, stereotyping, dehumanisation and oppression against Hindus. Cow worship has been used for centuries to denigrate Hindus, insult their faith and oppress Hindus specifically as a religious group. There has been overwhelming documentation about how cow slaughter has been used to persecute Hindus with cow meat being thrown in temples and places of worship. There has also been overwhelming documentation where cow meat (beef) has been force-fed to Hindus to either forcefully convert them to Islam or denigrate their faith. Apart from cow worship, the Swastika – which holds deep religious significance for the Hindus – has also been misinterpreted and distorted to use as a slur against Hindus. Similarly, the worship of the Shivling has been used by supremacist ideologies and religions to denigrate Hindus owing to religious animosity. Such slurs and denigration stem out of inherent animosity and hate towards Hindus and their faith, therefore, it is categorised as hate speech targeted at Hindus specifically owing to their religious identity. The second sub-category under which this case has been placed is- Attack not resulting in death. Under this, the first sub-category selected is- Attacked for Hindu identity. In several cases, Hindus are attacked merely for their Hindu identity without any perceived provocation. A classic example of this category of religiously motivated hate crime is a murder in 2016. 7 ISIS terrorists were convicted for shooting a school principal in Kanpur because they got ‘triggered’ seeing the Kalava on his wrist and tilak that he had put. In this, the Hindu victim had offered no provocation except for his Hindu religious identity. The motivation for the murder was purely religious, driven by religious supremacy. Such cases where Hindus are targeted merely for their religious identity would be documented as a hate crime under this category. The second sub-category selected is- Attacked for opposing radicals or trying to save victims. In several cases, Hindus are attacked for opposing religiously motivated crimes being committed against a fellow Hindu or simply for voicing an opinion opposing radical elements, who either have in the past or continue to persecute Hindus. In such cases, the initial attack against the victim, against which the Hindu was trying to defend the victim, would also need to be classified as a religiously motivated hate crime. Since the initial crime itself was religiously motivated and the subsequent crime of attempting to save the victim or speaking against the radical elements ends up inviting a violent attack, it would also be classified as a religiously motivated hate crime under this category. In this case, the two victims are minors who were lured into a shop by the Muslim shopkeeper and then were sexually assaulted. When the family members went to confront the accused, they were hurled casteist slurs. The fact that the Muslim accused lured and sexually assaulted the girls is a heinous act, but one cannot say for sure that the victims were targeted owing to their religious identity. From the details available, it is entirely possible that the crime was one of opportunity, where the girl was simply accessible to the perpetrator. However, there is a flip side to the argument - for a Muslim perpetrator, a Muslim child would be far more accessible than a Hindu child. The fact that the perpetrator specifically targeted the Hindu girl could point towards the religious profiling of the victim. However, this is only in the realm of speculation since the case details make no indications that the girls were targeted owing to their religious identity. Then what makes this a religiously motivated crime, warranting inclusion in the tracker? In this case, the religious motive became apparent when the accused hurled caste based abuse at the victim's families when they opposed the heinous act. Casteist slurs can be interpreted as hatred and contempt towards Hindus and Hinduism. When such caste based profanities are used, they are often a veiled reference to their religious identity, rather than their caste identity. Here, one may argue that a caste-specific slur is aimed at her micro identity of belonging to the Dalit section of the Hindu community and not her Hindu identity itself. However, as far as Abrahamic religions are concerned, the micro identities of caste, region, and language are secondary. It is the religious identity that drives the animosity of the perpetrator against the Hindu victim. In this case, while the accused hurled caste abuses at the victim's families, the animosity was driven by his animosity towards Hinduism and Hindus. While the immediate trigger of the violence could be the confrontation the families had with the accused, as mentioned in reports, the fact that caste slurs were hurled at them by the perpetrator makes it a religiously motivated hate crime against the victim.
Case Status
Complaint filed
Perpetrators Details
Perpetrators
Muslim Extremists
Perpetrators Range
One Person
Perpetrators Gender
male
Sources 
