In June 2022, this correspondent covered a case from Madhya Pradesh’s Jabalpur where a six-year-old Hindu boy was allegedly circumcised by a neighbour named Mansoor Khan without knowledge or consent of the boy’s parents.
After almost a year has passed, the family says no action has been taken against the culprit. The boy’s farther has now called for a protest on behalf of all ‘Bahujan Samaj’ against the administration for their lackadaisical behaviour.
The Case
Pappun Bain and his wife Deepa lived in the Ordinance factory quarters located in the west land of Khamariya, Jabalpur. Deepa worked as a cook for one of the senior staff at the factory; they were provided with accommodation at the factory servant quarters.
One day she went to work and Pappu was also out for his daily work. Their son Paras was sleeping at home. In front of their house lived Mansoor, his wife and their eight-year-old son Faizu. Paras and Faizu were friends.
As Paras told this correspondent on camera, while they were playing, Faizu took him to his room where Mansoor circumcised him.
Watch his statement here:
Deepa told this correspondent that the cut is circular at the tip of the private part, leading the couple to conclude that it was circumcision done by an adult.
After they filed a complaint against Mansoor and his son, their employer fired Pappun and Deepa for involving the police. They had to leave the servant quarters. When this correspondent met them, they lived in a rented single-room arrangement in Rajhi colony in Bada Patthar area of the city.
The detailed report, in this case, can be read here.
Deepa had lost her job too. They managed with the little work Pappun got as a daily wager labourer. Sewa Nyaya Utthan Foundation (www.sewanyaya.in) stepped in and helped the couple financially to tide over the crisis.
In July 2022, the case file was closed by the magistrate saying they found no evidence of circumcision and it seemed like Mansoor’s son Faizu made the cut while playing. This is what Pappun told this correspondent in a conversation this week.
(Rashtra Jyoti will update this report with that court order as soon as we have it).
Pappun said that Paras, who sustained an injury in his private part, has been to the hospital many times after the incident as it swells and he faces trouble while urinating.
He says he is fed up with the administrative work and lack of justice in his case, and has called for a ‘Bahujan Samaj’ protest seeking justice for his child. He comes from the Basor caste which falls under the scheduled castes.
Here is a copy of the pamphlet which he has distributed among activists seeking help in getting justice for his son.
The note in this pamphlet reads (translated from Hindi), “The Town Inspector of Khamariya police station, Nirupa Pandey, and his sided with Mansoor Khan and closed the case. I have faced caste-based discrimination. They hurled casteist slurs against me. I tried registering a case against Pandey, Amit Singh, Neelam Singh, Mansoor and Mansoor’s family at the Harijan police station but no action was taken against them. Now the only option left for me is to call for a protest.”
This correspondent called Pappun on 11 February 2023. He said he has lost faith in the legal system as his child has not got justice. “A man in my absence circumcised my child and no action has been taken against the culprits. Is this the Hindu Rashtra they keep talking about?” he said.
In anger, Pappun said that the government keeps changing the names of cities and gardens to Hindu named but a heinous crime like forced conversion attempt of a child is being ignored.
He said that he had to collect all the documents related to the case through RTI (Right to Information) with help of activists. He said he did not have a stable job, and does odd jobs for a living. Sometimes he paints house, at other times he is a labourer carrying goods. He has been spending all his savings to fight the case against Mansoor, he said.
He claims the administration has treated him badly. The officials have pushed him out of their office, abused him, and he has felt like a fool running from one office to another.
He says he felt like the administration is being run by Muslims.
He said that on Monday (13 February), he and his family members would go to the office of the Superintendent of Police, Jabalpur, and would stage a dharna to demand justice. If the SP would not take any action against the accused, he would go for ‘self-immolation’, he said.
He said that he has learnt the hard way that despite Baba Saheb Ambedkar being the architect of the Constitution, Dalits have little rights here.
He said he could not simply accept what happened with his son. He cannot forget the day when he found his son hiding beside the house as there was blood in his pants.
“I want justice for my son, Madam, at any cost”, he said.
Unfortunately, this case is not the only such.
One such case came to light from the Ghaziabad district of Uttar Pradesh where a Muslim couple illegally adopted a Hindu child and got him circumcised.
The minor child, Sonu, was circumcised by Umar and Babli after a middleman Zulfikar helped them with the illegal adoption. It was only after Zulfikar’s neighbour Rajesh posted a video of the child talking about his circumcision and physical abuse by Umar and Babli, that the Ghaziabad police took action.
Readers may go through a detailed report about this case here.
Another case within a month of Sonu’s circumcision came to light from the same city, Ghaziabad, where a Hindu woman got married to a man who introduced himself as a Hindu named Guddu. After marrying him she found he was a Muslim named Sablu. Within a month of their marriage, Sablu got her son circumcised, after which the woman left him and filed a case against him.
Read the details of the case here.
In May 2022, a Hindu family filed a case against a cleric for making their minor son convert to Islam, get circumcised and have nikah with a Muslim woman. The boy, Nikhil, was 17 at the time of the nikah. A case was registered against the cleric and the woman and the boy returned to the custody of his parents.
Read the details of the case here.
A similar case from reported from Uttar Pradesh’s Rampur district in 2021 where a Sikh woman entered into a relationship with one Mohammad Mehfooz after the death of her husband.
When the marriage was fixed, Mehfooz’s family put a condition as per which the two sons of this Sikh woman would have to undergo circumcision before the nikah. When the circumcision ritual was being carried out, Hindu residents of the village learnt about it and informed the police. The police filed a case under Juvenile Justice act against the man and his family.
Read the details about the case in this thread.
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