Hindu youth assaulted and issued communal slurs by Muslim men for being seen with Muslim girl

Case ID : 069ce84 | Location : Seoni, Madhya Pradesh, India | Date of Incident : Fri, 26 September, 2025

Case ID : 069ce84

Seoni, Madhya Pradesh, India

26 September, 2025

Hindu youth assaulted and issued communal slurs by Muslim men for being seen with Muslim girl

Men attacked for being associated with non-Hindu women

Attacked/killed for being associated or suspicion of being associated with Muslim woman

Hate speech against Hindus

Anti-Hindu slurs, mocking faith

Case Summary

In Seoni, Madhya Pradesh, a Hindu youth named Aman Sahu was physically assaulted by a group of Muslim men while he was walking with a burqa-clad Muslim girl. According to media reports, the incident occurred on 27th September 2025 near the city’s bus stand area. However, this came to light on 29th September 2025 after a video of the assault surfaced online. Police acted swiftly and arrested six accused in connection with the case. According to police, Aman Sahu, a resident of Nandiya Kalan village, had gone with his friend Ankit Sahu to collect a transfer certificate from his college. On their way back, Aman stopped at a medical store near the bus stand to buy medicines. There, he encountered a burqa-clad girl, identified as his sister’s friend from a neighbouring village. The two began talking when the accused intervened. As per reports, one of the accused, Asim Beg, a resident of Chhoti Police Line, arrived on a motorcycle and blocked Aman’s way. He questioned him, saying, “Which girl are you roaming with?” and began hurling communal abuses. Shortly after, his companions joined in and assaulted Aman in public. Following the circulation of the video, police arrested six individuals identified as: Mujahid (19), son of Mujeeb Baig, Adil (20), son of Noor Mohammad, Saqib (21), son of Yunus Khan, Mohammad Naseem (40), son of Sheikh Ramzan, Mohammad Hassan (19), son of Noor Mohammad, and Asim (18), son of Aleem Mirza. Kotwali police station in-charge Kishore Bamanakar confirmed the arrests and stated that further investigation is underway. At the time of writing this report, the accused are now in 14-day judicial custody. Local leaders condemned the act, with Hindu priest Ramesh Tiwari calling it “a stain on humanity".

Why it is Hate Crime ?

This case has been added to the tracker under the primary category- Men attacked for being associated with non-Hindu women. Within this, the subcategory selected is- Attacked/killed for being associated or suspicion of being associated with Muslim woman. There have been several cases documented of Hindu men/boys being attacked specifically by Muslim groups/mobs for merely being associated or suspicion of being associated or being seen with a Muslim woman in public. In most of such cases, the Hindu man is not in a relationship with the Muslim woman, however, the mob proceeds to threaten and/or assault the Hindu man for merely being associated with the Muslim woman in any capacity. The rise of such crimes stems from a particularly sinister campaign run by several Muslim ideologues and activists. The campaign claims that Hindu men are attempting to ‘lure’ Muslim women into relationships to ensure that Muslim women leave their faith and follow Hinduism. The propaganda has been spearheaded with the help of WhatsApp groups and the extensive use of social media, sans evidence of the same. In many cases, pamphlets were fabricated to lend credence to this campaign. The root of this campaign lies in the fact that several cases of sectarian crimes against Hindu women in relationships with Muslim men have been documented. In such cases, Hindu women have often been forced/pressured to convert to Islam, assaulted, threatened and even murdered owing specifically to their religious identity and their refusal to give up that religious identity to adopt Islam. To delegitimize the suffering of Hindu women when such sectarian crimes are committed against them, the theory of ‘Bhagwa Love Trap’ was floated by sections of the Muslim community. As this theory gained traction, Muslim mobs started targeting Hindu men who were seen with Muslim women. In several such cases, the Hindu man was assaulted merely for offering to drop a Muslim woman in his vehicle or being friends. The differentiating factor between such cases and legitimate cases of Hindu women being targeted while in a relationship with Muslim men is that there is no sectarian violence, and force/pressure to convert. The nature of sectarian violence against Hindu women is not about two adults in a consensual relationship, working together, studying together, or even marrying each other where religious considerations are declared. In this category of crimes, it is pertinent to remember that in none of the cases, there is an element of the Hindu man masking his identity or forced religious conversion. Such cases are driven by specific religious motivations and against the religious identity of the victim and are therefore qualified as hate crimes. Another primary category selected in this case is- Hate Speech against Hindus. The subcategory selected is- Anti-Hindu slurs, mocking faith. Anti-Hindu slurs and the deliberate mocking of the Hindu faith owing to religious animosity involve the usage of derogatory terms, stereotypes, or offensive references to religious practices, symbols, or figures. One of the common anti-Hindu slurs used against Hindus is “cow-worshipper” and “cow piss drinker”. The intention of using this term is to demean and mock Hindus as a group and their religious beliefs since Hindus consider the cow holy. Additionally, some symbols and the slurs attached to them have a historical context that exacerbates the insult, hate, stereotyping, dehumanisation and oppression against Hindus. Cow worship has been used for centuries to denigrate Hindus, insult their faith and oppress Hindus specifically as a religious group. There has been overwhelming documentation about how cow slaughter has been used to persecute Hindus with cow meat being thrown in temples and places of worship. There has also been overwhelming documentation where cow meat (beef) has been force-fed to Hindus to either forcefully convert them to Islam or denigrate their faith. Apart from cow worship, the Swastika – which holds deep religious significance for the Hindus – has also been misinterpreted and distorted to use as a slur against Hindus. Similarly, the worship of the Shivling has been used by supremacist ideologies and religions to denigrate Hindus owing to religious animosity. Such slurs and denigration stem out of inherent animosity and hate towards Hindus and their faith, therefore, it is categorised as hate speech targeted at Hindus specifically owing to their religious identity. This case is a clear instance of a religiously motivated hate crime against Hindus, where the victim, a Hindu youth, was issued communal slurs and physically assaulted simply because he was seen walking with a Muslim girl. The incident was not triggered by any inappropriate behaviour or public misconduct but solely by the religious identities of the individuals involved. It must be noted here that both the individuals present in this case are adults who are free to make their own decisions. Thus, the Muslim girl was with the Hindu boy out of her own free will. The Muslim aggressors took issue with the fact that a Muslim girl, visibly wearing a burqa, was in the company of a Hindu boy. This reaction was not motivated by concern for the girl’s safety or consent, but rather by an ingrained religious bias and a desire to enforce sectarian boundaries through intimidation. The act of filming the incident and asking the Hindu boy, "Which girl are you roaming with?”, sends a broader message of religious control within public spaces. This was not an isolated outburst but a targeted act driven by a deeply ingrained hostility toward the Hindu identity of the boy. The attack was deliberate, unprovoked, and carried out with the intent to publicly enforce a discriminatory belief system that denies Hindu men the right to freely associate with Muslim women. The justification for such actions stems from the conspiracy theory of ‘Bhagwa Love Trap’, which is explicitly rooted in anti-Hindu sentiment. This false narrative vilifies Hindu men by portraying them as predators targeting Muslim women, despite no basis in reality. It is weaponised to legitimise violence against Hindus, as seen in this case, where a group of Muslim men took it upon themselves to stop the Hindu boy and the Muslim girl and assault the Hindu boy for his faith. Additionally, reports confirm that the Hindu boy was also subjected to communal slurs, making the anti-Hindu nature of the attack glaringly evident. Assaulting a Hindu boy solely for his Hindu identity is a textbook example of a religiously motivated crime, and the use of communal slurs further exposes the intent behind the assault. Given that this case involves the attack on a Hindu boy for his religious identity, it has been rightfully added to the Hate Crime database of the Hinduphobia Tracker. Disclaimer: While mainstream media outlets like Dainik Bhaskar have reported the victim's name as Aman Sahu, there are other reports claiming the victim's name is Rajesh Sharma. However, for the purpose of this case documentation, we are recording the name exclusively as Aman Sahu.