Hindu minor girl kidnapped and forcibly converted to Islam by Muslim man and his sister in Kanpur, Uttar Pradesh
Kanpur, Uttar Pradesh, India 
24 March, 2026
Case Summary
A minor Hindu girl was kidnapped, brainwashed and converted to Islam without her consent by a Muslim man and his sister. The incident came to light when a minor Hindi girl from Shastri Nagar, Kanpur, went missing on 25 March, 2026. Following her disappearance, her father lodged a complaint with the Kakadev police station regarding the incident. The complaint set out the sequence of events leading to the missing girl report. According to the complaint filed by the father, it was found that Mohammad Shahid, a resident of Begampurwa in Babupurwa, along with his sister Khushnuma, had taken the Hindu minor girl away. The father specifically named both the brother and the sister in the report. The father further expressed that the two accused had forcibly facilitated the religious conversion of his minor daughter without the consent or knowledge of her family. Acting on the complaint, the Kakadev police arrested both accused, namely Mohammad Shahid and his sister Khushnuma, in connection with the conversion of the Hindu minor girl. The police also traced and recovered the girl during the course of the investigation. Kakadev police station in-charge Rajesh Kumar Sharma stated that both accused were produced before the court and subsequently sent to jail. At the time of documentation, the police had confirmed the arrests and the recovery of the girl, and further legal proceedings in the matter were underway.
Why it is Hate Crime ?
This case has been added to the tracker under the primary category - Predatory Proselytisation. Within this, the subcategory selected is - Proselytisation by grooming, brainwashing, manipulation or subtle indoctrination. The tertiary category selected under this is- Family claims, grooming, and Conversion of a minor. 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 the 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 for inclusion in the tracker because it involved the targeting of a Hindu minor for religious conversion, where the element of free and informed choice was absent from the outset. The central issue here was not merely a change of faith, but the use of influence over a legally vulnerable child who lacked the maturity and capacity to make such a profound decision independently. Once the victim was a minor, the question of genuine consent ceased to have legal or moral weight. A minor, by reason of age, remains particularly susceptible to emotional pressure, dependency, and sustained psychological influence. In such cases, what may outwardly appear as acceptance is often the result of grooming, persuasion, or gradual brainwashing rather than an exercise of free will. The law recognises this vulnerability because minors are incapable of appreciating the long-term consequences of decisions affecting identity, family, and religion. Any conversion secured in these circumstances is therefore tainted by incapacity and influence. The religious dimension was central because the victim was a Hindu minor and the act involved an attempt to alter her religious identity. This was not an incidental interaction but a direct interference with the faith of a child belonging to a particular religious community. The targeting of a Hindu minor for conversion, coupled with her legal inability to provide valid consent, brought the incident squarely within the scope of religion-based hostility and coercive influence recorded by the tracker. Further, the involvement of more than one accused indicated an organised and structured course of conduct rather than an isolated episode. Such coordination strengthens the inference that the victim was subjected to a deliberate process of influence and control. The vulnerability of the child, the religious objective, and the absence of lawful consent together gave the case a clear hate-crime character. Given that the incident reflected the targeting of a Hindu minor through brainwashing and coercive religious influence, and involved an attempted change of faith without valid consent, it met the parameters for inclusion in the hate crime database of the tracker. Disclaimer: The tracker records incident dates based on when the crime occurred, not when it was reported. In this case, the exact date of the incident was not fully specified beyond the date on which the victim went missing. Accordingly, 25 March 2026 has been used as the indicative incident date for documentation purposes only.
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
Arrested
Perpetrators Details
Perpetrators
Muslim Extremists
Perpetrators Range
From 2 To 5
Perpetrators Gender
both
Sources 
