Muslim man pretends to be Hindu to trap a minor Hindu girl, marries her and forcibly converts her to Islam

Case ID : ea7ab31 | Location : Surat, Gujarat, India | Date of Incident : Thu, 5 October, 2023

Case ID : ea7ab31

Surat, Gujarat, India

5 October, 2023

Crimes against women in relationships and other sexual crimes

Man pretends to be Hindu

Name Changed

Forced conversion after marriage

Forced to wear Hijab

Brainwashed and/or groomed

Pattern of targeting Hindu minors

Conversion of minor

Case Summary

In Surat city of Gujarat, a Muslim youth named Rizwan Gaffar Shah posed as a Hindu man named Karan, and deceived a Hindu girl into a relationship. He then forcefully converted her to Islam after taking her to Delhi. The victim girl initially crossed paths with Rizwan Gaffar Shah in the year 2018 when she was 17 years old. The girl was employed at a factory, and the accused Rizwan operated an autorickshaw. Rizwan married the girl after she was trapped in a relationship. The girl was a minor at the time of marriage. After taking her to Delhi, Rizwan revealed that his name is not Karan and he is a Muslim. By then the victim had become pregnant, so she continued to live with Rizwan. The victim complained that Rizwan had told her that Muslims do not believe in idol worship so the girl should not worship idols. The girl was then forcibly converted to Islam and Rizwan took her to his family in Uttar Pradesh. The victim gave birth to a daughter and was assaulted by Rizwan as he wanted a son. The victim girl was also forced to wear a burqa and forbidden from stepping out of the house. The girl became pregnant for the second time and had a second child. She later came to know that Rizwan was also in touch with other Hindu girls. When questioned about this, Rizwan told the victim girl that the more Hindu girls they (Muslim youths) trap, the more money is given to them. The victim eventually uncovered the truth, managed to escape the situation, and returned to Surat. With the support of her family, she filed a complaint with the local police. The accused, Rizwan Gaffar Shah, was arrested and legal proceedings are underway.

Why it is Hate Crime ?

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. What gives this case a distinct religious angle is that the Muslim perpetrator actively hid his religion and pretended to be a Hindu to ensnare the Hindu victim. The Muslim perpetrator further forcefully changed her religious identity to Islam and pressured her to follow Islamic practices, pointing towards a crime with his motivations being driven by religious hate, which is why this case has been documented as a hate crime. There is another important thread of grooming in this case since the victim was a minor and was not only trapped in a relationship but was also being forced/brainwashed to convert to Islam. In our database, we have not added incidents where women have converted to another religion of their free will and no allegations of forced/involuntary conversion have been made. However, there are certain cases of conversion where the consent itself is a result of the brainwashing or grooming of a minor by the non-Hindu perpetrator trying to victimise a woman for her Hindu religious identity. The phenomenon of grooming points to non-Hindu perpetrators identifying their Hindu victims’ vulnerabilities and exploiting them over months and sometimes years, to extract the supposed ‘consent’ in order to convert their religion. In most cases of grooming, the victims are minors or the grooming started when the victim was a minor. In other cases of grooming, the non-Hindu perpetrator brainwashes and grooms a minor victim to extract their trust and then proceeds to rape them repeatedly with the intent of converting them to their faith. It is pertinent to understand here that when the victim is a minor, the ‘consent’ to convert or enter into a romantic relationship with an adult itself is redundant – addressed by POCSO. While every case of conversion of a minor and incidents of establishing a physical relationship with a minor by an adult is a crime, for the purpose of this database, a case would be considered a hate crime only if there is a distinct religious angle to the grooming. For example, in the UK, if a Hindu minor is targeted by Pakistani grooming gangs, it would be considered a hate crime because the victims are specifically targeted owing to their non-Muslim religious identity with the perpetrators being Muslim. In other cases, if a Hindu minor is brainwashed into entering a physical relationship with the non-Hindu adult perpetrator and the family alleges grooming/brainwashing of the minor to convert her religion, it would form a part of this database. If the victim is a Hindu adult, the case would form a part of this database only if the victim herself says that she was brainwashed/groomed to convert her religion. However, if the victim is deceased (murdered or otherwise), the case would form a part of this database if her family/friends provided testimony that the victim was brainwashed/groomed to convert her religion. Since these crimes have a distinct religious angle where the victim is being targeted owing to her Hindu religious identity, these cases are considered a hate crime.