Muslim youth rapes Hindu girlfriend, forces her to convert to Islam when she asks for marriage, threatens to kill her
Damoh, Madhya Pradesh, India 
4 October, 2023
Case Summary
In the Damoh district of Madhya Pradesh, a 20-year-old Hindu girl accused one Shahwaz Khan of pressurising her to convert to Islam for marriage. One and a half years ago, the pair came closer and meetings between them increased. Both of them fell in love gradually and their bond grew deeper. The perpetrator called her to a hotel and established sexual relations. When the girl asked him to tie the knot with her, he told her that she would have to embrace Islam for that. He refused to marry her otherwise and even threatened to kill her if she did not convert. A case against the individual was submitted under numerous sections including rape and criminal intimidation. Search for the absconding accused is underway.
Why it is Hate Crime ?
This case has been published here because it satisfies two particular requirements of religiously motivated hate crimes against Hindu women. The first factor is that the accused forced the victim to convert to Islam before marriage. 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 ‘Niqah’, 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. Secondly, the Muslim perpetrator assaulted the victim after she refused to accede to his conversion demands. When Hindu women are in a relationship with non-Hindu men, there are cases where the woman faces threats or assault after she refuses to convert and change her religious identity owing to pressure/force by the non-Hindu man. Such relationships may be consensual with the religious identity of the non-Hindu man known to the victim. Somewhere along the relationship, the non-Hindu man starts pressurizing the Hindu woman to convert to Islam and upon her refusal, assaults or threatens the victim. Such cases are driven by specific religious motivations and against the religious identity of the victim and are therefore qualified as hate crimes. Cases where the Hindu woman converts to Islam and does not file a complaint about the force or threat, are not considered a part of the hate tracker, even though, it may be argued that the woman was brainwashed or threatened to convert to Islam.
Victim Details
Total Victim
1
Deceased
0
Gender
- Male 0
- Female 1
- Third Gender 0
- Unknown 0
Caste
- SC/ST 0
- OBC 0
- General 0
- Unknown 1
Age Group
- Minor 0
- Adult 1
- Senior Citizen 0
- Unknown 0
Case Status
Complaint registered
Perpetrators Details
Perpetrators
Muslim Extremists
Perpetrators Range
One Person
Perpetrators Gender
male
Sources 
