Accused Rashid alias Raju with the victim girl
Governments while bringing dedicated laws to curb religious conversions believed that these laws will help the victims in getting justice. Contrary to the government’s vision the victims are running from posts to pillars in search of justice and their appeals go unheard.
This case is from the Fatehpur District of Uttar Pradesh where a 19-year-old victim is struggling to get her complaint registered even after having sufficient proof against the accused.
Sneha Mishra (name changed, surname retained to protect the identity of the victim) met a man through social media who introduced himself as Raju Mishra. They fell in love with each other and Raju impregnated her. After extorting a huge sum of money from the victim, he took her to Surat and had a conversion–nikah with her.
After a year of the nikah, he left the victim saying, he will go to Jannat as he has converted a Hindu Brahmin girl to Islam and now she is of no use to him. He is constantly giving her death threats as well.
Rashid terminated her pregnancy when she was still a minor
Sneha met Rashid through social networking site where he introduced himself as Raju Mishra. They became friends and met once after which he invited the victim to his house. Back then the victim was just 17 years old.
At his house, Rashid intoxicated her and made physical relations with the minor. He also filmed the act and when the victim gained consciousness he said, he loves the minor and wants to live with her, if she will refuse to stay with him he will share her pictures and videos on social media platforms. He also told her that he is not Raju but Rashid instead.
Later he started blackmailing the girl with those videos and pictures to make physical relations with her. One day he asked the victim to get him a sum of four lakh rupees which he will return within three months. The victims brought the money from her house and gave it to Rashid. After this Rashid took her to Surat where she became pregnant and then asked him to marry her. He refused to do so and terminated the pregnancy, the next time she became pregnant he said, he will marry her only if she converts to Islam.
A cleric was called and Sneha became Mahi Khan to marry Rashid. After the nikah, Rashid terminated her pregnancy again without her knowledge.
When the victim asks for her money back, Rashid fled from Surat. When she reached his house and asked for the money, his parents threatened her with dire consequences. They said, they cannot keep her in their house anymore.
However, they have converted a Kaafir Hindu to Islam which is equal to ‘Ek Haj ka Sawab’.
The victim wants action against the accused as he has exploited her sexually, and financially, assaulted and mentally tortured her.
The victim told Organiser Weekly that Rashid had unnatural sex with her against her wishes and his family members forcefully fed her cow meat knowing she is a Brahmin.
Rashid used to work at a steel supply factory in Surat when he first met the victim on social media in 2021. He came to Fatehpur to meet the victim and after a few meets he took her to his house whereupon intoxication he raped her.
When she woke up he said, “I love you a lot and did not know how will you react to my feelings. I want you to be solely mine and now that I have made physical relations with you, you are mine only”.
He said, if she will accept his proposal he will marry her and if she refused he will share her pictures and videos on social media. In fear, she accepted all his demands and kept meeting him.
In September 2022, Rashid asked the victim to help him with money. The victim gave him a sum of rupees four lakh with a promise that the accused will return the money in three months. When the victim’s father Ashok Mishra found the truth, Rashid signed an undertaking stating in case he fails to return the amount they will be able to sell his car and take their money.
To date, Rashid did not pay the money back to Sneha’s family.
As their relationship soured after the whole money issue, Sneha left her parents. Her family tried bringing her back but she refused to come back. The family did not register any complaint against Rashid as Sneha was supporting him and they let her go.
Almost after a year of this elopement, Rashid had left Sneha. This is not it as he is also threatening to kill her
After Sneha left her father’s house Rashid took her to his house, he kept her there for some time and when she asked him to marry her he and his family said nothing. When she threatened them with a police complaint, they said she was a minor and should not go to the police, as soon as she will turn 18 Rashid will marry her, till then she should also move to Surat with Rashid.
Rashid and Sneha started living in Surat. There she became pregnant twice, once when she was still a minor and the second time when he turned 18. Both times Rashid gave her pills and terminated her pregnancy. The first time, she was aware of the termination but the second time she was unaware of it. It was done after the third month.
Sneha recalled that time and said, “I found he has given me the pills only after it started to bleed. As the fetus was three months old, it was really painful. A piece of flesh struck in my vaginal opening and Rashid left me alone at home. I had to call my friend who is a nurse after which the bleeding stopped”.
After this termination, Sneha pressurised Rashid to marry her. She had to complain to his parents about the same.
On December 18, 2022, he finally agreed to marry her but with a condition that she will have to convert to Islam. He said, “I can only marry you after you accept Islam”. She was taken to a Mosque in Surat where a cleric, made her recite ‘Kalma’ and asked her to perform the ‘Wuzu’ after which he gave her a new name Mahi Khan. Followed with the conversion, the cleric solemnised their nikah.
After the ‘Nikah’ when Rashid took her to his parent’s house in Fatehpur they force-fed her ‘cow meat’ saying only after eating it she can be a true Muslim. They also gave her a copy of the Quran and asked her to offer namaz with them. She had to wear Punjabi suits and cover her head with a ‘Hijab’ mandatorily.
About Rashid’s behaviour towards her, she said, he would beat her up and perform unnatural sex with her against her wishes. Even on her periods, he would ask her to have sex with him saying, ‘A Muslim woman can never say no to her husband’.
The minor had to bear all the torture as she chose to live with him. Her father is a farmer and her mother is a housewife, they are aged couple now. She has four brothers and all of them are married, she was the youngest of all the siblings. After all of this happened her brothers discarded her from the family saying they will kill her if she ever returned home. With no place to go the girl had to live with Rashid only.
She recalls her days in Surat as every time she asked for her money which Rashid borrowed from her father he would leave her and return home only after two-three days. He used to abuse her saying, ‘If I would have married a Muslim woman her family would have given me dowry (dahej), what have you brought?’
He would leave her alone without a single penny and other foodstuffs at home. She would lend money to her friends to survive. It was becoming too difficult for her to survive there. In February 2023, following an argument Rashid said, “Tujhe Islam me laakar mujhe ek Haj ka sawab mil gaya hai, ab tu kisi kaam ki nahi. Mai tujhe nahi rakhunga” and left her.
She returned to Fatehpur and reached his place but Rashid’s family did not allow her in their house. When she reached the police station they called Rashid’s father who promised that he will take his daughter-in-law home. After reaching home he said, “The police officer is asking for money, you are asking for money, my son is not at home. How am I supposed to keep you here when you are fighting against us?”
The same night he throw her out of his house. The police were not ready to take her complaint. She tried everything and on March 13 when she reached the Khakhreru police station of the Fatehpur district, she met some local Hindu activists who highlighted the matter in the media.
By the time this report was filed, no complaint has been registered in the case by the Fatehpur police.
This correspondent asked the Uttar Pradesh police on Twitter who directed the Fatehpur police to take action in the case.
The correspondent will update the report in case the police take action against the culprit.
Notably, the victim shared two Aadhaar Cards belonging to the accused one with the name Rashid Khan and the other with the name Raju Mishra. The intensity with which such forged UIDAI (Unique Identification Authority of India) cards are being recovered from the accused is alarming. Government should have a hawk eye in this matter.
Ideally, the culprits should be booked under IPC 376 (rape), 377 (unnatural relation), 506 (criminal intimidation) and sections of the Uttar Pradesh Freedom of Religion Act.
With any new information in the case, Organiser Weekly will update the report.
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