Minor Hindu girl lured into relationship, sexually exploited by Muslim man who pretended to be Hindu by wearing tilak and performing puja

Case ID : 30a73e8 | Location : Raisen, Madhya Pradesh, India | Date of Incident : Mon, 12 May, 2025

Case ID : 30a73e8

Raisen, Madhya Pradesh, India

12 May, 2025

Minor Hindu girl lured into relationship, sexually exploited by Muslim man who pretended to be Hindu by wearing tilak and performing puja

Crimes against women in relationships and other sexual crimes

Man pretends to be Hindu

Name Changed

Wears symbols of Hinduism

Brainwashed and/or groomed

Rape and sexual assault/harassment

Case Summary

In Bhojpur, Raisen, Madhya Pradesh, a minor Hindu girl was lured into a love affair by a Muslim man named Sohail Khan, who pretended to be a Hindu man named Shiva. He deceived the girl by wearing Hindu symbols like a tilak, performing puja to Hindu deities, and visiting temples. The accused lured the victim away and took her to Ajmer, where he sexually exploited her. According to media reports, the victim was first lured by Sohail on Snapchat in May 2025. During this time, he introduced himself as a Hindu man named Shiva. He even pretended to perform puja, wear a tilak, and attend Shivratri puja in a temple. By doing all this, he lured the victim into a relationship. He even took her to a Shiva temple in Bhojpur on Shivratri. Later, one day, when the girl was on her way to school, he lured her to his home in Shujalpur and then took her to Ajmer. In Ajmer, they stayed at Sohail's friend's home for three days. The accused then brought the girl back to Shujalpur and kept her hidden in his home. After the incident came to light, police arrested Sohail Khan. The station in charge, Ranjit Sarathe, stated that a case was registered against the accused under the rape and Protection of Children from Sexual Offences (POCSO) Act. Additional sections were added to the case based on the girl's statement. Meanwhile, the Vishwa Hindu Parishad (VHP), a Hindu organisation, demanded strict action in this case. VHP leader Surendra Keer said this was a well-planned conspiracy involving Sohail's parents, his brother, and his Ajmer friends. He demanded that the police make the family members co-accused in this crime. The victim's family was in shock and demanded the strictest punishment for the perpetrators. The victim's family filed a missing person report at the Mandideep police station a week ago. Station in-charge Ranjit Sarathe said that based on the family's statement, the police continuously searched for the girl. Upon receiving information, the girl was rescued from the Shujalpur area on 13 March 2026, and the accused was arrested and presented in court, where he was sent to jail.

Why it is Hate Crime ?

The primary category selected in this case is- Crimes against women in relationships or other sexual crimes. The subcategory selected is- Man pretends to be Hindu. The tertiary category selected is- Name Changed, Wears symbols of Hinduism. 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. The other subcategory selected is- Brainwashed and/or Groomed. The tertiary category selected is- Rape and sexual assault/harassment. 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. This case is a clear instance of a religiously motivated hate crime. A minor Hindu girl was lured into a love affair, taken to Ajmer, and sexually exploited by a Muslim man who posed as a Hindu. The deception based on faith and the subsequent sexual exploitation of a minor Hindu girl clearly showcase the religious motivations behind the crime. Firstly, it is important to state that the victim is a minor. This means the element of consent and genuine change of conscience was absent from the outset. 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 entering a romantic or sexual relationship with an adult or the depths of religious deception. The Muslim perpetrator purposely targeted and exploited this vulnerability of the minor victim. Since this case exemplifies the use of coercion and manipulation to religiously deceive and sexually exploit a Hindu girl, it amounts to a hate-driven act. Secondly, the perpetrator's act of deception by posing as a Hindu demonstrates a clear bias and malicious intent towards the victim's religion. By hiding his true identity, the Muslim man manipulated the Hindu girl's trust and targeted her under false pretences, indicating a premeditated effort to exploit her based on her religious background. This constituted a direct violation of her right to informed consent regarding whom she chooses to be in a relationship with, as well as an infringement upon her religious beliefs. Thus, the perpetrator's deliberate decision to hide his religious identity strongly underscores the religious motive behind this crime. In such instances, identity concealment is not just a deceptive tactic for personal reasons but a calculated strategy rooted in religious profiling and targeting. The accused knew that the victim, being Hindu, would likely refuse his advances if she knew his real identity, and he circumvented this by lying, which directly points to a religiously driven intent. This deception reflects a larger pattern where Hindu women and minor girls are specifically singled out using false identities by Muslim men, often with coercion or conversion in mind. Such targeted victimisation based on religion demonstrates a fundamental disregard for Hinduism and exposes a deeper animosity towards Hindus and their beliefs. The accused, Sohail Khan, meticulously posed as a devout Hindu by wearing a tilak, performing puja, and even taking the minor victim to a Hindu temple on Shivratri, all to feign religious devotion and gain her trust. Tilak, a sacred mark on the forehead symbolising blessings from deities like Shiva, and puja, the ritual worship central to Hindu spiritual life, represent profound devotion, purity, and connection to one's faith, traditions deeply cherished in Hinduism for fostering community bonds and personal sanctity. By cynically appropriating these symbols and participating in temple rituals solely to trap a Hindu girl into a false relationship leading to her sexual exploitation, the perpetrator demonstrated utter contempt for Hindu sentiments and the sanctity of these practices. This calculated desecration of Hindu traditions underscores the depth of his deception, revealing not mere personal deceit but a malicious intent to mock and violate the victim's religious identity. Thirdly, through deliberate deception, the Hindu girl was sexually exploited by the Muslim perpetrator under the false pretext of marriage. This was not a random act of sexual exploitation; it was a targeted assault driven by religious bias, aimed at singling out and violating a Hindu girl because of her religious identity. Such acts of exploitation by manipulation and religious profiling clearly underline the religiously motivated nature of this crime. In these cases of rape and sexual violence, the motivation is religious animosity, with the aim to destroy the victim's dignity and spirit due to hatred towards her Hindu identity. Perpetrators seek to humiliate, defile, and break the victim's cultural and spiritual essence, using sexual violation as a weapon to assert dominance over her faith and community, thereby eroding her sense of self and religious pride. Fourthly, the accused's family and friends were deeply involved, showcasing a collective and well-organised effort to strip a Hindu girl of her dignity, violate her sexually, and deceive her by using a false Hindu identity. Sohail Khan's parents, brother, and friends in Ajmer provided shelter and support during the three days the victim was held there, actively concealing her from authorities and enabling the exploitation. This network facilitated the abduction from Shujalpur to Ajmer and back, demonstrating premeditated coordination rather than an individual act. Such familial complicity highlights entrenched religious animosity, where the entire Muslim group targeted the minor Hindu girl precisely because of her faith, aiming to exploit and humiliate her due to her Hindu identity. Overall, this case demonstrates several parameters of a religiously motivated crime; therefore, it is being added to the hate crime database of the Hinduphobia Tracker. Disclaimer: The Hinduphobia Tracker records the dates of incidents based on when the crime occurs or when the victim's ordeal begins, rather than when it is reported by the media. In this current case, media reports have not specified the exact date when the victim's ordeal began; they only state that it began in May 2025. The only other date mentioned in this report is 13 March 2026, when the girl was safely recovered by the police from the Shujalpur area. Hence, by using these two pieces of information, 13 May 2025 has been selected as an indicative incident date. This date is recorded for documentation purposes only. In this case, not just the Muslim perpetrator, Sohail Khan, was responsible. His parents, his brother, and his friends in Ajmer were also responsible for sheltering the victim and facilitating the crime, though the report does not specify the total number of friends involved. Therefore, the perpetrator count has been recorded as '4', referring to Sohail Khan, both of his parents, and his brother.