Case Summary

In Lakhimpur Kheri, Uttar Pradesh, a Hindu man named Puttu Lal was harassed by a Muslim man named Aheem Khan. The accused coerced the victim into having his Hindu daughter married (Nikah) to him. According to media reports, the Hindu victim, Puttu Lal, had purchased a bike on loan and had been making his instalment payments regularly. However, he was unable to pay the final instalment. Aheem Khan, who was a loan recovery agent, began to harass him. He repeatedly called, abused, and issued threats of physical assault to Puttu Lal. On one occasion, Aheem Khan demanded that Puttu Lal get his Hindu daughter married to him. Aheem stated, "I will pay the last instalment, just get your daughter married to me." Due to the persistent harassment, Puttu Lal filed a complaint against Aheem Khan. After the complaint, an FIR was registered against Aheem Khan in the Bhira police station. Regarding this incident, the police stated, “The exact details about the accused are not yet known. As soon as the complete information is revealed, raids will be conducted against him. A case has been registered for action. The victim was constantly harassed over the phone. The location of the harasser is being traced through his phone.”

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Why it is Hate Crime ?

This case has been added to the tracker under the primary category- Predatory Proselytisation. Within this, the subcategory selected is- Conversion/ attempts to convert by inducement. Predatory Proselytisation is not just limited to threat, harassment, force and violence, but it also has contours of stealth. In several cases, the Hindu victim is exploited to convert, with non-Hindus taking advantage of their poverty. In such cases, the Hindu victim who is suffering financially is offered monetary benefits, including lucrative offers for jobs, health treatment, education, etc, to induce the victim into changing his/her religion. In such cases, the religious identity of the victim and the aim to disenfranchise him from his faith form the heart of the crime. Also, taking advantage of and exploiting an individual’s economic vulnerabilities is widely acknowledged as exploitation, forms of which are often penalised by law. Such cases therefore are considered religiously motivated hate crimes since the victim’s religious identity forms the very heart of the crime itself. The other subcategory selected in this case 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. 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. In this case, the Muslim accused, Aheem Khan, used his position as a loan recovery agent to exert undue pressure on Puttu Lal by offering to pay off the victim's pending loan instalment only if Puttu Lal agreed to get his Hindu daughter married to Khan. Here, it is important to understand that under Islamic law, marriage between a Muslim man and a non-Muslim woman, in this instance, a Hindu woman, typically requires the woman to convert to Islam prior to the marriage. Thus, this inducement was not just about marriage; it inherently included pressuring the victim to facilitate his Hindu daughter's religious conversion as a precondition for financial relief. By tying the clearing of debt to conversion and marriage, Khan's actions exemplify coercive inducement, targeting the victim’s faith and community. Such acts are done to humiliate the Hindu community and strip Hindu individuals of their religious identity, making it a religiously motivated crime. Following this, the Hindu victim, Puttu Lal, was subjected to constant harassment by the Muslim perpetrator. This included repeated calls, abuse, and demands, which were focused on forcing him to agree to his Hindu daughter’s marriage to Aheem, which would necessitate her conversion to Islam. This kind of pressure goes beyond personal dispute or debt recovery; it directly attacks the religious identity and autonomy of the Hindu victim. The victim was being harassed specifically to enable a forced conversion and religious assimilation, which is widely recognised as a form of hate-motivated conduct targeting members of a religious group, in this case, Hindus. Such actions by the Muslim perpetrator showcase that the crime was motivated by animosity towards Hinduism and the Hindu community. Subsequently, the harassment escalated to threats of violence and constant intimidation by the Muslim accused. The intent behind these threats was to break the Hindu victim's resistance and coerce him into submission, essentially, to accept the forced religious conversion and marriage of his Hindu daughter to the Muslim perpetrator. This use of intimidation and violence to compel a member of a different religious community to act against their beliefs is a classic indicator of a hate crime. It exhibits both religious and communal animus, targeting the family for their Hindu identity and seeking to force assimilation into another faith through coerced marriage, making it a crime motivated by hatred for the Hindu community. Given that this case meets multiple parameters of a religiously motivated crime, it is being added to the hate crime database. Disclaimer: Media reports do not specify the exact date when the victim’s ordeal began. However, according to the FIR filed by Puttu Lal, the last threatening call pressuring him for his daughter’s marriage occurred on 15 February 2025. For the purposes of documentation, this date is being taken as the indicative date of the incident. The Hinduphobia Tracker records the date on which the victim’s ordeal began, rather than the date it was reported in the media.