Case Summary

From Faridabad, Haryana, a minor Hindu girl and her family were lured and targeted for religious conversion and marriage by two Muslim brothers, Bahare Alam and Jaane Alam, who both pretended to be Hindus. According to Hindu organisation workers, the 15-year-old Hindu girl and her family were deceived by Bahare Alam, who introduced himself as a Hindu named Rakesh. After some time, he introduced them to his brother Jaane alam alias Chhotu, and portrayed him as a Hindu as well. They deceived the girl's mother under the pretence of arranging her daughter's marriage and took them to their house in Khutar. It was later revealed that both Bahare Alam and Jaane Alam were Muslim on which the victim's family refused the marriage proposal. The brothers then started pressuring and coercing the girl into marriage and religious conversion. Bahare Alam also made the minor Hindu girl wear a burqa and was planning for her religious conversion and Nikah. Upon receiving information from Hindu Yuva Sangathan, Uttar Pradesh, the Khutar police intervened and arrested both Bahare Alam and Jaane Alam. When the police reached the accused's house, they also found a woman from Bihar and her two daughters, who had allegedly been brought there through deception. Both girls are minors — one is 15 years old, and the other is just 4. During the interrogation, it was revealed that Bahare Alam had pretended to be Rahul and had known the teenager's mother for approximately two years, through which they got into contact with the minor girl. The victim is a resident of a village in the Katihar district of Bihar. Following her father's death, she had been working as a labourer in Faridabad, Haryana, with her mother and younger sister. Bahare Alam also worked as a labourer in Faridabad. As of the date of writing this report, both the accused were arrested, and the investigation was ongoing.

Case Images

Why it is Hate Crime ?

This case has been added to the tracker under the primary category of: - Crimes against women in relationships and other sexual crimes. Within it, the first sub-category selected here is: - Man pretends to be Hindu, with the tertiary category being: - Name changed. When a non-Hindu man pretends to be a Hindu to deceive a Hindu woman into a relationship, the act is seen as triggered by malafide intentions. In some cases, the woman eventually accepts the man’s original religious identity and converts after the man’s identity is revealed. These cases could be argued as cases of religious brainwashing and a result of the pressure a woman feels after getting into a relationship with a man. The woman, it can be argued, also changed her religious identity because of the stigma she believes she might face if she chooses to walk out of a deceptive relationship. However, for the purpose of documenting hate crimes, the cases in this subcategory are limited to those where there is explicit violence aimed at religious conversion against the wishes of the victim (force-feeding beef, blackmailing with intimate videos, rape on refusal to convert, etc), or if the woman herself complains of the man’s religious deception. In such cases, it is established that the deception of the non-Hindu man had a specific aim of religious conversion or targeting of the victim due to her Hindu religious identity, therefore, making it a religiously motivated hate crime. The second sub-category selected here is: - Forced conversion before marriage, with the tertiary category being: - Forced to wear Hijab. In such cases, a non-Hindu man is in a relationship with a Hindu woman when the pressure to convert her religion begins to manifest. The relationship in such cases is mostly consensual and the religious identity of the perpetrator is known to the Hindu woman in the relationship, however, at some point during the relationship, the non-Hindu man starts to force the victim to convert her religion and give up her Hindu religious identity. In such cases, the methods used to force the victim to convert her religion often revolve around force-feeding beef, forcing her to wear hijab, forcing her to read the Kalma or even pressurizing the victim to do ‘Nikah’, which is marriage under Islamic law, with a prerequisite being conversion to Islam. Cases where a Hindu woman consensually converts to Islam in a relationship will be left out of the hate crime database, even though it could be argued in several cases that the conversion was a result of religious brainwashing. The other primary category relevant here is: - Predatory proselytisation. Within it, the sub-category selected is: - Proselytisation by grooming, brainwashing, manipulation or subtle indoctrination, with the tertiary category being: - Family claims grooming and Conversion of minor. 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 grooming or 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 grooming or 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 proselytisation, such cases are considered religiously motivated hate crimes. This case is a clear instance of a religious hate crime perpetrated against a Hindu woman and her minor daughter by two Muslim brothers. The two brothers deliberately concealed their Muslim identity to gain the trust and deceive the Hindu woman and her minor daughter. They exploited the economic vulnerability of the woman by falsely claiming that they would arrange the marriage for her daughter. On this pretext of arranging a marriage, they lured the family from Faridabad to their house in Khutar. When the victims discovered the true religious identity of the accused as Muslims, Bahare Alam and his brother Jaane Alam, the woman refused to proceed with the marriage. The accused then began pressuring the Hindu woman and her minor daughter for religious conversion and marriage. They even forced the minor girl to wear a hijab and had already started preparing for her Nikah. In Islam, marriage to non-Muslims is prohibited, so they were forcing the minor daughter to convert to Islam before marriage. The tactics used, such as deception, manipulation, coercion, and religious impersonation, indicate that the brothers’ motive from the outset was religious conversion and marriage of the minor Hindu girl. They were never interested in helping the woman and were instead driven by religious hatred. Concealing one's religious identity to establish a relationship with a person of another faith is a clear manifestation of bias and malicious intent towards the victim's religion. By misrepresenting themselves as Hindus, the accused exploited the trust of the woman and her family under false pretences. This act of deception indicates a premeditated intent to manipulate them specifically because of their Hindu religious background. The tactic of adopting a false Hindu identity to manipulate and "ensnare" a Hindu individual is not merely an act of personal betrayal but can also be interpreted as an expression of disdain or disregard for Hinduism and its customs, reflecting a deeper animosity towards Hindus and their beliefs. In this case, the accused used their false Hindu identity to gain the trust of a Hindu widow to target her minor daughter for conversion and marriage. The gravity of the crime is further heightened by the fact that the girl they were marrying and converting was a minor, indicating a lack of consent and a genuine change of conscience. It is a well-established fact that children are more susceptible to manipulation since they are still developing emotionally, cognitively, and socially. Their brains are not fully mature, making them more vulnerable to influence and less capable of critically evaluating information. They made her wear a burqa while the girl probably had no clue what was happening to her. Therefore, this case highlights how religious manipulation, especially of minors, not only infringes upon religious freedom but also constitutes a targeted and deliberate hate crime against Hindus. It involves grooming, coercion, and deception—all rooted in a religious bias that seeks to undermine and erase Hindu identity through exploitative tactics. Thus, this case has been added to the tracker.