Nazim pretends to be Rahul, takes minor Hindu girl to Mumbai with the intention of converting and marrying her
Mirzapur, Uttar Pradesh, India 
6 May, 2024
Case Summary
In Uttar Pradesh’s Mirzapur district, Nazim Ansari was arrested for luring a minor Hindu girl by posing as a Hindu named Rahul Singh and taking her to Mumbai with the intention of converting her religion and marrying her. His plan was uncovered when an OTP for an Aadhaar card update was sent to the victim’s mother’s phone, prompting the family, who had already reported the girl missing, to inform the police. The police used surveillance to track down Nazim and rescued the girl on May 17, reuniting her with her family. Nazim's mother, Noorjahan, is also said to be involved in the conspiracy. Nazim had moved next to the victim’s house six months prior and befriended the girl under a false identity. On May 7, he ran away with her to Mumbai from Bhadohi with the assistance of a young neighbour. The victim’s mother filed a police complaint for her missing daughter. Meanwhile, Nazim was preparing documents to marry the victim after converting her to Islam. For this, he wanted to alter the date of birth on her Aadhaar card. However, the minor’s Aadhaar card was linked to the phone of her mother, which busted his plan. The police then set a trap and apprehended Nazim on May 17 when he returned to Mirzapur. He was arrested on charges of abducting the minor and was jailed. The minor was safely returned to her family, and the case is under investigation.
Why it is Hate Crime ?
The distinct element in this particular case that demonstrates that the Muslim perpetrator committed the crime while harbouring a bias against the Hindu faith is that he pretended to be a Hindu to deceive the victim. When a non-Hindu man pretends to be a Hindu to deceive a Hindu woman into a relationship, the act is seen as triggered by malafide intentions. In some cases, the woman eventually accepts the man’s original religious identity and converts after the man’s identity is revealed. These cases could be argued as cases of religious brainwashing and a result of the pressure a woman feels after getting into a relationship with a man. The woman, it can be argued, also changed her religious identity because of the stigma she believes she might face if she chooses to walk out of a deceptive relationship. However, for the purpose of documenting hate crimes, the cases in this subcategory are limited to those where there is explicit violence aimed at religious conversion against the wishes of the victim (force-feeding beef, blackmailing with intimate videos, rape on refusal to convert, etc), or if the woman herself complains of the man’s religious deception. In such cases, it is established that the deception of the non-Hindu man had a specific aim of religious conversion or targeting of the victim due to her Hindu religious identity, therefore, making it a religiously motivated hate crime. Thereafter, the religious motive of the crime became more apparent when the accused forcefully converted the victim, who, in this case, was a minor, to Islam. Since the Hindu victim was a minor, the element of consent and genuine change of conscience was missing ab initio. Minors, due to their young age and lack of maturity, are particularly vulnerable to manipulation and coercion. They may not have the ability to fully understand the implications of converting to another religion and the Muslim perpetrator purposely targeted and exploited this vulnerability of the victim. Since the victim was a minor who was converted to Islam after luring her into a relationship, there is a distinct element of grooming in the case as well. In our database, we have not added incidents where women have converted to another religion of their free will and no allegations of forced/involuntary conversion have been made. However, there are certain cases of conversion where the consent itself is a result of the brainwashing or grooming of a minor by the non-Hindu perpetrator trying to victimise a woman for her Hindu religious identity. The phenomenon of grooming points to non-Hindu perpetrators identifying their Hindu victims’ vulnerabilities and exploiting them over months and sometimes years, to extract the supposed ‘consent’ in order to convert their religion. In most cases of grooming, the victims are minors or the grooming started when the victim was a minor. In other cases of grooming, the non-Hindu perpetrator brainwashes and grooms a minor victim to extract their trust and then proceeds to rape them repeatedly with the intent of converting them to their faith. It is pertinent to understand here that when the victim is a minor, the ‘consent’ to convert or enter into a romantic relationship with an adult itself is redundant – addressed by POCSO. While every case of conversion of a minor and incidents of establishing a physical relationship with a minor by an adult is a crime, for the purpose of this database, a case would be considered a hate crime only if there is a distinct religious angle to the grooming. For example, in the UK, if a Hindu minor is targeted by Pakistani grooming gangs, it would be considered a hate crime because the victims are specifically targeted owing to their non-Muslim religious identity with the perpetrators being Muslim. In other cases, if a Hindu minor is brainwashed into entering a physical relationship with the non-Hindu adult perpetrator and the family alleges grooming/brainwashing of the minor to convert her religion, it would form a part of this database. If the victim is a Hindu adult, the case would form a part of this database only if the victim herself says that she was brainwashed/groomed to convert her religion. However, if the victim is deceased (murdered or otherwise), the case would form a part of this database if her family/friends provided testimony that the victim was brainwashed/groomed to convert her religion. Since these crimes have a distinct religious angle where the victim is being targeted owing to her Hindu religious identity, these cases are considered a hate crime.
Victim Details
Total Victim
1
Deceased
0
Gender
- Male 0
- Female 1
- Third Gender 0
- Unknown 0
Caste
- SC/ST 0
- OBC 0
- General 0
- Unknown 1
Age Group
- Minor 1
- Adult 0
- Senior Citizen 0
- Unknown 0
Case Status
Case sub-judice
Perpetrators Details
Perpetrators
Muslim Extremists
Perpetrators Range
From 2 To 5
Perpetrators Gender
both
Sources 
