Hindu Dalit minor girl groomed by Muslim man under false religious identity, sexually exploited and subjected to abduction attempt by two Muslim men
Hapur, Uttar Pradesh, India 
20 March, 2026
Case Summary
A Hindu Dalit minor girl from Hapur, Uttar Pradesh, was groomed and sexually exploited by a Muslim youth named Adil. The accused concealed his Muslim identity in order to draw her into a relationship and attempted to abduct her with the help of an accomplice on the morning of March 21, 2026 (Saturday), but the attempt failed. According to reports, Adil concealed his Muslim identity and groomed the 16-year-old Hindu Dalit minor girl into a relationship under false pretences. During the course of the relationship, he sexually exploited her. When the minor girl discovered Adil’s true Muslim identity, she distanced herself from him and ended the relationship. On Saturday morning, as the minor girl left her home to attend her coaching class, Adil and his associate Mehtab were lying in wait for her near Khajurah in Khanisaar village. The two perpetrators forced her onto a motorcycle and began taking her away in an attempted abduction. The young woman raised the alarm, drawing the attention of passers-by, who rushed to the scene. Upon seeing the gathering crowd, the two perpetrators attempted to flee but were stopped and surrounded by the crowd. Taking advantage of the crowd's distraction, both Adil and Mehtab abandoned the minor girl and fled the scene. The minor girl’s family arrived at the scene and took her to the Narsena police station. News of the attempted abduction of a Hindu Dalit minor girl spread rapidly through the area, triggering outrage among Hindu organisation workers and local villagers. A large number of villagers and Hindu organisation workers gathered at the police station, expressed strong anger, and staged a protest demanding the immediate registration of a case against the perpetrators. Late in the evening, the police registered a case against Adil and Mehtab on the basis of the minor girl’s written complaint. Both perpetrators were arrested, and further statutory legal action was initiated. The station in charge, Ram Kishore Gautam, confirmed the registration of the case and the arrests.
Why it is Hate Crime ?
The primary category for this case is "Hate crime against women in relationships and other sexual crimes". Under this, the first subcategory selected is" Man pretends to be Hindu". 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 second subcategory selected is "Brainwashed and/or groomed". Within this, the tertiary categories selected are "Rape and sexual assault/harassment" and "Victim says she was brainwashed/groomed". 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. The second category selected here is "Predatory Proselytisation". The sub-category for this case is "Proselytisation by grooming, brainwashing, manipulation or subtle indoctrination". The tertiary categories here are "Rape and sexual assault/harassment" and "Victim says she was brainwashed/groomed". Religious brainwashing essentially means the often subtle and forcible indoctrination to induce someone to give up their religious beliefs to accept contrasting, regimented ideas. Religious grooming or brainwashing also involves propaganda and manipulation. It involves the systematic effort, driven by religious malice and indoctrination, to persuade “non-believers’ to accept allegiance, command, or doctrine to and of a contrasting faith. Cases of such grooming or brainwashing are far more nuanced than direct threats, coercion, inducement and violence. In such cases, it is often seen that there is repeated, subtle and continual manipulation of the victim to induce disaffection towards their own faith and acceptance of the contrasting faith of the perpetrator. While subtle indoctrination is widely acknowledged as predatory, an element which is often understated in such conversions or the attempts of such conversion is the role of loyalty and trust which might develop between the perpetrator and the victim. Fiduciary relationships are often abused to affect such religious conversion. For example, an educator transmitting religious doctrine of a competing faith to a Hindu student. The Hindu student is likely to accept what the teacher is transmitting owing to existence of the fiduciary relationship. The exploitation of the fiduciary relationship to religiously indoctrinate victims would also be included in this category. Since the underlying animosity towards the victim’s faith forms the basis of predatory proselytisation, such cases are considered religiously motivated hate crimes. This case qualified as a religiously motivated hate crime on the basis that Adil, a Muslim youth from Paswada, Bahadurgarh police station area, Hapur, Uttar Pradesh deliberately concealed his Muslim identity to groom a 16-year-old Hindu Dalit minor girl from the Narsena police station area into a relationship, sexually exploited her during the course of that relationship, and subsequently attempted to abduct her when she discovered his true Muslim identity and ended the relationship. The deliberate concealment of his Muslim identity, the systematic grooming of a vulnerable Hindu Dalit minor, the sexual exploitation carried out under the cover of a deceptive relationship, and the violent attempted abduction carried out in retaliation for her decision to end the relationship collectively reflected a premeditated and organised predatory operation directed specifically at a vulnerable Hindu Dalit minor girl. The foundation of Adil's predatory operation was the deliberate concealment of his Muslim identity to gain the trust of the Hindu Dalit minor girl. In Hindu society, and particularly within Dalit Hindu communities, religious identity carries profound significance in the context of relationships, and a young girl's willingness to enter into a relationship with a man is deeply shaped by his perceived religious and social identity. By concealing his Muslim identity, Adil deliberately bypassed the Hindu Dalit minor girl's faith-based and community-based boundaries, creating a false sense of trust and compatibility that she would never have extended to him had she known his true Muslim identity. The concealment was not a passive omission but an active, sustained deception maintained throughout the relationship, forming the deliberate foundation on which the predatory operation was constructed. The grooming carried out by Adil over an extended period reflected a deliberate and calculated strategy of psychological manipulation directed at a Hindu Dalit minor girl who, by virtue of her age, occupied a position of particular vulnerability. The minor girl's own written complaint to the police confirmed that she had been systematically drawn into the relationship through Adil's sustained deception, reflecting her recognition that the relationship had been built entirely on a false identity and deliberate manipulation. The depth of the grooming was reflected in the fact that it was only upon discovering Adil's true Muslim identity that the minor girl was able to recognise the nature of what had been done to her and take the decision to end the relationship, confirming that the psychological manipulation had been sustained and effective throughout the period of the relationship. The sexual exploitation of the Hindu Dalit minor girl during the course of the deceptive relationship constituted a direct and serious act of sexual assault against a minor whose consent had been obtained through sustained deception and false identity. Consent obtained through the deliberate concealment of a fundamental aspect of one's identity, such as religious identity, is not genuine consent but a product of sustained psychological manipulation, making the sexual exploitation of the Hindu Dalit minor girl an act of assault rather than a consensual act. The deliberate targeting of a Hindu Dalit minor girl for sexual exploitation through grooming and identity deception reflected a conscious and predatory choice to exploit the particular vulnerability of a minor from a marginalised community who lacked both the maturity and the social protection to recognise or resist the sustained manipulation being directed at her. It is further important to note here that the victim was a minor, which means 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 this case exemplifies the use of coercion and manipulation, it is a blatant act of religious hate, which is why it has been documented here in the hate tracker.
Victim Details
Total Victim
1
Deceased
0
Gender
- Male 0
- Female 1
- Third Gender 0
- Unknown 0
Caste
- SC/ST 1
- OBC 0
- General 0
- Unknown 0
Age Group
- Minor 1
- Adult 0
- Senior Citizen 0
- Unknown 0
Case Status
Arrested
Perpetrators Details
Perpetrators
Muslim Extremists
Perpetrators Range
From 2 To 5
Perpetrators Gender
male
Sources 
