Minor Hindu girl kidnapped, sexually assaulted and converted to Islam by Muslim youth and his family

Case Summary
In Uttar Pradesh's Sonbhadra, a minor Hindu girl was kidnapped, sexually assaulted, and forcibly converted to Islam. After being rescued in November 2023, the victim lodged a complaint based on which, the main accused Afroz Ali, his father Usman Sah and his mother, who were accomplices in the crime, were arrested under IPC Sections 366 (kidnapping), 342 (wrongful confinement), 376(a) (rape causing death or vegetative state), 376(2)(n) (repeated rape), 384 (extortion), 328 (administering poison), and violations of the Uttar Pradesh Prohibition of Unlawful Religious Conversion Act, 2021. The accused two sisters Husneara and Jahanara, who had been absconding since then, were arrested recently on January 25, 2025. According to the complaint filed by the victim (who is now 20 years old) on November 8, 2023, on August 31, 2022, Afroz Ali offered to drop the victim home on his bike. However, instead, he took her to his house where his sisters and parents confined her and made her unconscious. She was taken to Jamnagar, Gujarat, where she was repeatedly raped. Later, she was taken to Jharkhand, forced to sign blank papers, then brought back to Jamnagar, where even Afroz Ali’s father raped her. She was forcibly married to Afroz Ali. Eventually, she was rescued in Dudhi by police after a tip-off from her family.
Why it is Hate Crime ?
This case has been added to the tracker under the prime category of- Predatory proselytisation. Under this, the first sub-category selected is- Harassment, threats, coercion for conversion. Harassment covers a wide range of behaviours of an offensive nature. It is commonly understood as behaviour that demeans, humiliates, and intimidates a person, including threats and coercion. Harassment and threats, in this case, find their root on discriminatory grounds which has the effect of nullifying a person’s rights or infringing upon his freedom to exercise his right specifically owing to the victim’s religious identity. Verbal and physical threats and psychological or physical harassment are often used against Hindu victims because they choose to practice their professed religion. Religious harassment also includes forced and involuntary conversions by harassment, threats or coercion. Coercion includes intimidatory tactics like force-feeding a Hindu victim beef to convert to another religion, forceful circumcision etc. In several cases documented, non-Hindu perpetrators or those who harbour specific animosity towards Hinduism, harass victims simply based on their religious identity. Such cases often also include harassment to ensure the Hindu victim abandons his/her professed religion and adopts the religion of the perpetrator. In this subcategory, we would only include cases where the victim was harassed, threatened or coerced to convert. Cases where attempts were made to convert but the victim resisted would be documented in another sub-category. Such cases where Hindu victims are harassed to convert to the perpetrator’s religion are rooted in animosity towards the victim’s religious identity and are therefore documented as religiously motivated hate crimes. The second sub-category selected is- Proselytisation by grooming, brainwashing, manipulation or subtle indoctrination and within this, two tertiary categories have been selected, which are- 'Rape and sexual assault/harassment' 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 Hindu minor girl was abducted and kept in confinement. This itself is a severe form of intimidation. Then she was put through unfathomable physical torture by her perpetrators. She was repeatedly raped, converted and forced to marry a Muslim man. The purpose behind the violence employed was to coerce the victim to abandon her faith and accept Islam. The underlying motivation of predatory proselytisation itself is animosity towards the professed faith of the victim. In this case, there was violence involved in the pressure exerted to convert the Hindu girl forcefully. Further, the central aim of the perpetrators was to disenfranchise the Hindu girl from her professed faith. Since the central motivation is religion, this case has been added as a hate crime. It is also important to mention that there was manipulation involved as the accused exploited the minor girl's trust and proposed to drop her at her home, however, instead, he abducted her. Thereafter she was assaulted, converted and forcefully married off to the accused. Since the victim was a minor, there was an absence of both consent and a genuine change of conscience. It is a well-established fact that children are more susceptible to manipulation since they are still developing emotionally, cognitively, and socially. Their brains are not fully matured, making them more vulnerable to influence and less capable of critically evaluating information. Consequently, cases involving religious manipulation of minors not only represent an infringement on an individual's religious freedom but also demonstrate a calculated strategy of targeting those who are less able to resist or understand the long-term implications of conversion, making it a significant case of religious-motivated hate crime.
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 1
- Adult 0
- Senior Citizen 0
- Unknown 0

Case Status
Arrested

Perpetrators Details
Perpetrators
Muslim Extremists
Perpetrators Range
From 2 To 5
Perpetrators Gender
both