Zeeshan abducts minor Hindu girl of Meerut by promising to make her ‘YouTuber’, had preyed on other victims before
Meerut, Uttar Pradesh, India 
6 May, 2024
Case Summary
A 15-year-old Hindu girl was abducted by Mohammed Zeeshan in Meerut, Uttar Pradesh. Zeeshan lured the victim by promising to make her a YouTuber. He lives in the Madhav Puram area of the city and has been on the run since the abduction. On May 7, he posted a video with the girl on his Facebook channel. The girl's father reported the abduction to the Medical College police station, prompting an investigation. It was revealed that Zeeshan had similarly targeted other Hindu girls, befriending them on Facebook and promising to make them YouTubers before kidnapping them. The police formed a team to apprehend Zeeshan and are examining videos from his Facebook account to identify any accomplices.
Why it is Hate Crime ?
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. In this case, the Muslim perpetrator lured and manipulated the minor girl by promising to help her become a YouTuber and then abducted and raped her. In Grooming cases, the perpetrator often religiously profiles victims and then lures then, brainwashes them, and/or manipulates them in order to sexually exploit the victims. In this case, it is evident that the perpetrator lured the victim in order to sexually exploit her. However, from the first incident alone, it is not evident that the perpetrator profiled the victim on the basis of religious identity. What makes this a hate crime is the revelation that the non-Hindu perpetrator had similarly targeted several other Hindu minors and women. When minors are being targeted specifically from one religious community, it is evident that the victims are being profiled on the basis of their religious identity. When victims are targeted specifically on the basis of their professed faith, the religious animosity harbored by the perpetrator is also abundantly evidenced. Because the Muslim perpetrator was profiling his victims on the basis of their religious identity and displayed a pattern, this case is being categorized as a religiously motivated 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
Complaint registered
Perpetrators Details
Perpetrators
Muslim Extremists
Perpetrators Range
One Person
Perpetrators Gender
male
Sources 
