A horrific case of abduction and gangrape of a Hindu girl by a Muslim cleric and his brother-in-law has come to light from UP’s Mau district. The accused first scared and brainwashed the girl with talk of ghosts/djinns and black magic. They then intimidated and took her away to a madrasa (Islamic school/seminary) in Maharajganj district near the Nepal border where both of them raped her.
The accused maulvi Hafiz Mohammed Islam and his brother-in-law Mohammed Salman alias Raju have been arrested and charged with kidnapping and rape. As per the police, they raped the victim at a madrasa located in Siswa, Maharajganj district, near the Nepal border.
The girls’ family, who belong to a Scheduled Caste (SC) community, first lodged a complaint stating that Salman and another unidentified person living in their neighborhood had kidnapped their daughter. It was mentioned in the complaint that Salman lived on rent near the victim’s family and would often roam around their house. When the family tried to dissuade him, he threatened to abduct the girl from their house.
On January 1, the 21-year-old victim had left home to get medicines but did not return. The victim had also taken away her mother’s mobile phone, which was later switched off. The victim’s family tried to search her but could not find her anywhere. Later, they also searched for Salman, but he was also missing from his house. Salman’s phone was also switched off and his father denied having any information. The complainant alleged that they got to know about Salman’s involvement in women trafficking.
Upon getting this complaint, the police registered a case under IPC section 366 (kidnapping), 506 (criminal intimidation), and the SC/ST Act and started searching for the girl. According to media reports, the police came to know during their investigation that Salman had taken the girl with him to a madrasa in a town named Siswa in the Maharajganj district bordering Nepal.
The girl, in her statement to the court, said Salman’s brother-in-law Mohammad Islam was the maulvi at that madrasa. He instilled fear of ghosts and raped her along with Salman. The police have arrested both the accused and have conducted a medical examination of the victim.
Cases of Muslim clerics and fraud fakirs sexually exploiting women and children in the name of performing jhaad phoonk (black magic) to remove djinns (an Arab word referring to spirits, usually evil) or the ‘evil eye’ routinely come to light. Here are some cases
UP Police woman constable raped by Maulvi under pretext of ‘removing Djinn’
In Kashmir, Maulvi raped minor boys on pretext of ‘driving away evil eye’
Sometimes, madrasa teachers claim they were overcome by a djinn which ‘forced’ them to rape children. This is similar to how paedophile Christian priests sometimes try to blame ‘temptation by the devil’, an excuse which has been trotted out by the Vatican as well to rationalize the child sex abuse epidemic in its ranks.
