Case Summary

In the Sadar Kotwali area of Budaun, a minor Hindu girl was lured away by a Muslim family. The victim's family received a phone call in which they were informed that the victim had been forcibly converted and married. The victim's family was also threatened on the call. Hinduphobia tracker has a copy of the FIR, according to which, Raja (25 years), son of Asif, along with Guddu alias Asif (45 years), and Alia (22 years), daughter of Asif — all residents of Kabulpura — lured their daughter away from near their home. Sometime later, the family received a phone call informing them that their daughter had been forcibly converted and married. The caller also threatened that if they contacted the police, their daughter would be killed. Initially, the police ignored the matter, after which the complainant also submitted an application to the SSP. When no action followed, they turned to the judiciary. Following the court’s direction, the Sadar Kotwali police registered an FIR against the three accused and began investigating the matter.

Case Images

Why it is Hate Crime ?

This case has been added to the tracker un the primary category of - Predatory Proselytisation. The sub-category selected here is - Proselytisation by grooming, brainwashing, manipulation or subtle indoctrination, and within it, the tertiary categories selected are - 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 proselytization, such cases are considered religiously motivated hate crimes. In this case, the minor Hindu girl was lured away by the Muslim family. Later, the victim's family received a call in which they were informed that their daughter had been forcefully converted to Islam, and a nikah was performed. The victim's family was threatened. In this case, it is important to note that the victim was a minor, which means the element of consent and genuine change of conscience was missing ab initio. Minors, due to their young age and lack of maturity, are particularly vulnerable to manipulation and coercion. They may not have the ability to fully understand the implications of converting to another religion and the Muslim perpetrator purposely targeted and exploited this vulnerability of the victim. Since this case exemplifies the use of coercion and manipulation to achieve religious conversion, it is a blatant act of religious hate, which is why it has been documented here in the hate tracker.