Married Muslim man rapes Hindu girl, blackmails her into marriage and conversion, tries to kill her with the help of his first wife
Purnia, Bihar, India 
16 September, 2023
Case Summary
In the Purnia district of Bihar, accused Mohammad Isahak, a father of four children, blackmailed a 19-year-old Hindu Adivasi girl by taking some of her derogatory photographs and forcing her to marry. Later, he converted her religion to Islam and tried to kill her with the help of his first wife. The girl stated in the complaint that she was trapped by the accused, who established sexual relations against her will and captured her private photographs. He then forced the girl to marry using the photographs and changed her religion to Islam. On refusal, he issued death threats to her family members and got the marriage documents prepared in Purnia Court. The girl was given a new name, ‘Saira Khatun’, post-conversion. The accused took her to a secret property in Supaul and continued to sexually assault her. After a month or so, he attempted to kill her in her sleep with the help of his first wife as she refused to keep her in the house. The girl escaped the spot and reported the incident to the police.
Why it is Hate Crime ?
Two distinct elements in this particular case demonstrate that the Muslim perpetrator committed the crime while harbouring a bias against the Hindu faith. The first factor is that the Muslim perpetrator married the Hindu victim and thereafter pressured her to convert to Islam and perform Nikah. 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 component in this case which makes it worthy of being documented as a religiously motivated hate crime is that the Muslim perpetrator used the victim's private pictures to blackmail her in to conversion. 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.
Victim Details
Total Victim
1
Deceased
0
Gender
- Male 0
- Female 1
- Third Gender 0
- Unknown 0
Caste
- SC/ST 1
- OBC 0
- General 0
- Unknown 0
Age Group
- Minor 0
- Adult 1
- Senior Citizen 0
- Unknown 0
Case Status
Complaint registered
Perpetrators Details
Perpetrators
Muslim Extremists
Perpetrators Range
From 2 To 5
Perpetrators Gender
both
Sources 
