Hindu man pressured to circumcise his two minor sons and convert them to Islam through inducements and coercion

Case ID : f664852 | Location : Rampur, Uttar Pradesh, India | Date of Incident : Wed, 5 March, 2025

Case ID : f664852

Rampur, Uttar Pradesh, India

5 March, 2025

Hindu man pressured to circumcise his two minor sons and convert them to Islam through inducements and coercion

Predatory Proselytisation

Harassment, threats, coercion for conversion

Conversion/ attempts to convert by inducement

Case Summary

The Rampur police have registered a case against a contractor, Ejaz Khan, for allegedly pressuring a labourer named Amanpal to convert his two sons, aged 12 and 6, to Islam. The matter came to light after Hindu organisations were alerted and staged protests outside the police station, demanding strict action. In response, the police detained one individual, Ali Mohammed, for questioning. The complaint was lodged by Amanpal’s uncle, Sompal, leading to the registration of an FIR at Shahbad Police Station under Section 118(2) of the Bharatiya Nyaya Sanhita and Sections 3 and 5(1) of the Uttar Pradesh Prohibition of Unlawful Religious Conversion Act, 2021. Additionally, provisions of the SC/ST Act under Section 3(2)(5) were invoked during the investigation. According to Sompal’s complaint, Amanpal and his family were taken to Osi village in Shahbad by Ejaz Khan under the pretext of employment. However, once there, Khan allegedly pressured Amanpal to circumcise his two sons and convert them to Islam through inducements and coercion. Sompal urged authorities to take immediate legal action against Khan for forced religious conversion. As the case gained attention, Amanpal released a video denying any religious conversion or circumcision, stating that neither he nor his children had undergone such a process. He further claimed that the police were harassing him due to his uncle’s complaint. Despite this, Sompal has remained firm on his allegations, insisting that Amanpal has indeed converted his children to Islam but is now attempting to conceal the truth to avoid legal repercussions.

Why it is Hate Crime ?

This case has been placed in the hate tracker under the prime category- Predatory Proselytisation. Under this, the first sub-category chosen 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 under which this case has been placed 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. Here, a Muslim man pressured a Hindu man to forcibly circumcise his minor sons and convert them to Islam. The Hindu man was coerced into this by the offer of inducements. The element of forced circumcision makes this case a distinct case of a religiously motivated hate crime as the perpetrator tried to use the tactics of intimidation to convert minor boys to Islam. Though circumcision is not a prerequisite to converting to Islam, it is often seen that it is used as an intimidatory tactic to make the Hindu victim abandon his/her professed religion and adopt the religion of the perpetrator. Since the underlying offence was against children of a specific faith and both harassment and inducement were used as tactics to alienate the victims from their professed faith, this case has been added here.