One Imtiaz of Indore takes Hindu girl hostage, marries her, threatens to kill the girl if her parents do not convert, arrested
Indore, Madhya Pradesh, India 
2 August, 2023
Case Summary
Indore, Madhya Pradesh's Syed Imtiaz, who is an engineer in an IT company in Hyderabad, took his colleague, a Hindu girl hostage, married her and demanded Rs 2 lakh from the victim's father. On the complaint of the girl's father Dayaram Gaur, the police arrested the accused. The girl's father alleged that Imtiaz befriended his daughter since they working for the same company in Hyderabad. He trapped her in the web of his love and took her personal photographs. After this, she was forced to get married to him and convert to Islam. After coming to Indore, the accused started pressurising the girl's family for religious conversion and demanded Rs 2 lakh from Dayaram Gaur. Imtiaz also threatened to make the girl's obscene pictures and videos viral if they did not comply. He further threatened to sell his daughter and kill her if him and his wife did not convert to Islam.
Why it is Hate Crime ?
In this case, there are three distinct components which prove that the offence was committed coupled with a bias hence this case has been classified as a religious hate crime against a woman in a relationship. The first sub-category in this instance is 'forced conversion after marriage'. In such cases, a non-Hindu man marries a Hindu woman and the force/pressure to convert to Islam begins after marriage. In such cases, the marriage is consensual in most cases and often, there is no element of the man hiding his religious identity. The marriage could be under the Special Marriages Act where neither parties are required to convert their religion for the marriage to be considered legitimate. While the victim in such cases enters matrimony assuming that religious identity is not a barrier, the non-Hindu man starts to pressure the woman to convert to Islam after marriage. In such cases, there is application of force by the perpetrator, including, denial of the woman’s religious rights. Some of the means by which the woman is forced/pressured to convert include force-feeding beef, forced to read the Kalma, forced to wear a hijab, forced for Halala, etc. There are several instances where after marriage, the woman voluntarily converts to Islam. Such cases are often argued to be a result of religious brainwashing, however, for the purpose of documenting religiously motivated hate crimes, in the absence of the victim complaining of forced conversion, such cases do not form a part of the database. The second sub-category applicable in this case is 'torture of family to force woman to convert'. When Hindu women are in a relationship with non-Hindu men, there are cases where the woman is forced to convert her religion. Several methods are used for such forced conversion. The non-Hindu man is often documented to issue threats and even employ violence. One of the ways used by such perpetrators is threatening and/or torturing the family members of the Hindu woman to pressure her to convert. The perpetrators in such cases issue threats to harm or torture the family of the woman. In some cases, there is also violence directed towards the family to force the Hindu woman to convert. Such crimes aim to blackmail the victim into changing her religion by inducing fear of harm to her family. Such cases are driven by specific religious motivations and against the religious identity of the victim and are therefore qualified as hate crimes. The third sub-category applicable in this case is 'blackmailed to convert'. When Hindu women are in a relationship with non-Hindu men, there are cases where the woman is blackmailed to convert her religion, owing to her religious identity of being a Hindu. Such relationships may be consensual with the religious identity of the non-Hindu man known to the victim, however, there could be cases where the relationship is not consensual and the non-Hindu man starts blackmailing a Hindu woman to convert her religion. In these cases, it is often seen that the Hindu woman is blackmailed with intimate photos and/or videos, threats of harm to her or her family, threats of violence etc. Such cases are driven by specific religious motivations and against the religious identity of the victim and are therefore qualified as hate crimes. Since this case meets three specific components of religiously motivated hate crimes against Hindu women, which are forced conversion after marriage, torture of family to force a woman to convert and blackmail to convert, this case has been documented here.
Victim Details
Total Victim
3
Deceased
0
Gender
- Male 1
- Female 2
- Third Gender 0
- Unknown 0
Caste
- SC/ST 0
- OBC 0
- General 0
- Unknown 3
Age Group
- Minor 0
- Adult 3
- Senior Citizen 0
- Unknown 0
Case Status
Complaint registered
Perpetrators Details
Perpetrators
Muslim Extremists
Perpetrators Range
One Person
Perpetrators Gender
male
Sources 
