Dreadful cases of forceful religious conversion continue to surface from the state of Maharashtra while the Eknath Shinde-led government is taking stringent steps to implement the anti-conversion law in the state. In one such case reported from Daund in Pune, the state police registered an FIR against two individuals named Kumel Kureshi and Asif Sheikh for harassing a Hindu person and his family and forcefully performing ‘khatna’ (circumcision) on him. The police have also booked an unidentified Muslim doctor who helped the primary accused in performing the khatna on the victim.
The FIR has been registered under IPC sections 295-A, 298, 452, 324, 323, 504, 506, and 34 and SC/SCT Act 3(2) (va).
According to the FIR copy obtained by OpIndia, the incident is said to have happened on October 14, however, the complaint was registered by the victim on December 16. The victim who hails from Madha village of Solapur district had been staying in Pune’s Daund region since November 2020. He migrated with his family to Daund for employment purposes in 2020.
The victim in the complaint mentioned that he performed a love marriage with a Muslim woman in June 2018. “She was a widow and mother of two little girls. After our marriage in 2018, we four became family and stayed happily until we shifted to Daund,” the victim said in the complaint.
He added that he and his wife worked on daily wages in Daund and had rented a house in the Kumbhargalli area for themselves to stay in. “We stayed safe for around one and a half years. However, after that one Muslim person identified as Asif Sheikh who stayed in the same building began harassing my wife. He used to keep a watch on her and abused her for marrying me, a Hindu,” the victim said. He also stated that the accused left no chance to make the woman feel uncomfortable.
“On inquiring about his behavior towards us and especially my wife, Sheikh abused me and called me Hindu Kafir. He threatened me to quit my religion and convert to Islam since I had married a Muslim woman,” the victim noted. He further said that he was issued death threats by Sheikh and was asked to leave his wife if he failed to convert his religion to Islam.
As per the report, Sheikh then contacted another accused, Kumel Kureshi also known as ‘Haji Sahab’ and informed him that a Hindu person had married a Muslim woman in his building. The duo on October 3 barged into the victim’s house and physically abused him for marrying a Muslim woman. Kureshi also thrashed the victim’s two daughters and his wife before taking her forcefully to his office which is located in the Kabristan area in Daund.
“My wife was forcefully taken by that Haji. She returned after two, three hours to reveal that she was threatened by the accused to end her marriage with me (a Hindu). He told her that I was a ‘Kafir’ and that he would get her re-married to a Muslim man who follows the Islamic rituals. He also told her that he would kill me if she failed to end her marriage with me and re-marry a Muslim man instead,” the victim said.
The Muslim woman also confirmed the incident in a video clip obtained by OpIndia. She said that she was threatened by the Haji to get the victim converted to Islam. “I asserted to them that my husband won’t change his religion. If there’s any problem, I will convert my religion to Hinduism. To this he refused and said that I was not supposed to change my religion,” the victim’s wife said.
The FIR further states that the two accused continued to threaten the couple several times since October 4. They barged into their house and slapped their daughters and also mentally tortured the Muslim woman for marrying the victim.
On October 14, Asif Sheikh and Kamel Kureshi got a Muslim doctor with them and forcefully entered the victim’s house in the Kumbhargalli area of Daund. The victim’s wife and his daughters were thrown out of the house before they forcefully circumcised the victim and converted him to Islam. “They came that day. I pleaded a lot but they threatened me and said ‘Ab bohot hua tera, aaj tera faisla hoga, tu Islam kaise kabul nh karta vahi dekhte hai (enough is enough now. Today I’ll make sure that you are converted to Islam)’. They also had got a Muslim doctor with them,” the complaint by the victim read.
According to the victim, Sheikh held his hands while Kureshi removed his clothes. “I was continuously pleading. I even told them that I would leave this place and go somewhere forever but they didn’t listen to me. The doctor took out some sharp objects and performed khatna on me after being signaled by Kureshi. Kureshi meanwhile chanted some Islamic lines and converted me to Islam,” the victim who is still terrified by the incident said.
The FIR states that the accused also snatched the identity cards including the Aadhaar Card and Ration Card of the victim and his family after the ‘khatna’ was forcefully performed. The entire incident was also recorded on the mobile phone of the one of the accused. The victim who belongs to the Valmiki community said that he and his family left Daund out of fear after the incident. He added that he was scared and terrified in October when the incident took place so could not report the incident back then.
The victim, however, filed an FIR on December 16 and is seeking justice in the case. Two accused Asif Sheikh and Kumel Kureshi and an unidentified Muslim doctor has been booked by the Police under IPC sections 295-A, 298, 452, 324, 323, 504, 506, and 34 and SC/SCT Act 3(2) (va).