Minor Hindu girl molested by Muslim man, forced to convert and marry him
Khandwa, Madhya Pradesh, India 
31 December, 2024
Case Summary
In Khandwa city of Madhya Pradesh, a 13-year-old Hindu girl was molested by a Muslim man named Zakir Chauhan. He forced the minor girl to convert to Islam and marry him. The victim lived with her mother in a rented house owned by a Muslim man named Zakir Chauhan in Gulmohar Colony. According to the victim, one evening in January, Zakir came to her house and offered to teach her how to drive. Along with that, he also pressured the girl to marry him and convert to Islam. Out of fear, the girl did not tell her mother about this. Two days later, Zakir came to her house again when she was alone and sitting on the bed. He once again asked her to convert to Islam and marry him. He then went on to molest her. The girl managed to escape from Zakir's clutches and hid at a neighbour's house. The victim and her mother vacated the house and moved to the Ramnagar area. The girl, with the help of Hindu organisations, filed a police complaint against Zakir Chauhan. Hindu organisations demanded strict action against the accused. The police registered a case against Zakir under the POCSO Act and assured that he would be arrested.
Why it is Hate Crime ?
This case is being added to the primary category 'Predatory Proselytisation' under two sub-categories. The first sub-category 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. The second sub-category is 'Proselytisation by grooming, brainwashing, manipulation or subtle indoctrination'. Under this sub-category, the tertiary categories selected are 'conversion of minor' and 'rape and sexual assault/harassment'. 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 Muslim perpetrator attempted to lure the minor Hindu girl, studying in class 7, to convert her religion to Islam and marry him. He also sexually assaulted the minor. The sexual assault of an individual is a crime ab initio. Further, when the victim is a minor, the far more stringent act, POCSO is also applicable. Attempts to convert a minor and force her into marriage is also a crime included in POCSO since as a minor, the victim does not have the agency to make sound decisions and understand the implications of decisions (change of faith and marriage) due to her young age. Exploiting a minor and attempting to brainwash her to change her religious is an egregious crime, stemming out of doctrinal hostility towards Hindus and their faith. This case is, therefore, being added to the Hinduphobia tracker. (Note: The specific date of the crime is not mentioned in the source reports. The reports indicate that the crime occurred during the month of January. For the purpose of keeping the database accurate, we have selected 1st January 2025 as the date of the incident).
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
Complaint filed
Perpetrators Details
Perpetrators
Muslim Extremists
Perpetrators Range
One Person
Perpetrators Gender
male
Sources 
