Minor Hindu girl lured, abducted, and forcibly converted to Islam by Muslim man in Khargone, Madhya Pradesh

Case ID : 30a7c17 | Location : Khargone, Madhya Pradesh, India | Date of Incident : Mon, 5 January, 2026

Case ID : 30a7c17

Khargone, Madhya Pradesh, India

5 January, 2026

Minor Hindu girl lured, abducted, and forcibly converted to Islam by Muslim man in Khargone, Madhya Pradesh

Predatory Proselytisation

Harassment, threats, coercion for conversion

Proselytisation by grooming, brainwashing, manipulation or subtle indoctrination

Conversion of minor

Case Summary

In Khargone, Madhya Pradesh, a minor Hindu girl aged 17 was lured, abducted, and forcibly converted to Islam by a Muslim man, Sheikh Salman. He also gave her a new Muslim name after her conversion. According to media reports, on 6 January 2026, the girl had gone to Sirvel market with her relative Chhagan Kanase to buy clothes. When the relative went to have breakfast nearby, the accused Sheikh Salman (29), son of Manwar, resident of Anjani Khurd, district Buldhana, lured the girl and took her with him. The accused kidnapped the victim, forced her to convert to Islam, and gave her a Muslim name. During police interrogation, the accused claimed that the girl had come to Aurangabad with her parents to work as a labourer. They met while working nearby. Following the incident, police arrested the Muslim accused in Aurangabad, Maharashtra. A case was registered under Section 137(2) of the Criminal Procedure Code and other relevant sections. At the time of writing this report, the Hindu girl was undergoing a medical examination. Ilap Singh Mujalde, Town Inspector (TI) Bhagwanpura, stated: “The process of safely handing over the girl to her family was underway. Preliminary investigations revealed evidence of religious conversion. Documents and other aspects related to the case were being investigated.”

Why it is Hate Crime ?

This case is added to the tracker under the primary category- Predatory Proselytisation. The subcategory selected is- Harassment, threats, coercion for conversion. Harassment covers a wide range of behaviours of an offensive nature. It is commonly understood as behaviour that demeans, humiliates, and intimidates a person, including threats and coercion. Harassment and threats, in this case, find their root on discriminatory grounds which has the effect of nullifying a person’s rights or infringing upon his freedom to exercise his right specifically owing to the victim’s religious identity. Verbal and physical threats and psychological or physical harassment are often used against Hindu victims because they choose to practice their professed religion. Religious harassment also includes forced and involuntary conversions by harassment, threats or coercion. Coercion includes intimidatory tactics like force-feeding a Hindu victim beef to convert to another religion, forceful circumcision etc. In several cases documented, non-Hindu perpetrators or those who harbour specific animosity towards Hinduism, harass victims simply based on their religious identity. Such cases often also include harassment to ensure the Hindu victim abandons his/her professed religion and adopts the religion of the perpetrator. The other subcategory selected is- Proselytisation by grooming, brainwashing, manipulation or subtle indoctrination. The tertiary categories selected are- Conversion of 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 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 proselytization, such cases are considered religiously motivated hate crimes. This case stands as a clear example of an anti-Hindu hate crime, as the minor Hindu girl was lured, abducted, forcibly converted to Islam, and given a new Muslim name by the Muslim perpetrator, Sheikh Salman. All these instances make this incident a clear case of a religiously motivated hate crime. It is first important to state that the Hindu victim is a minor, which means the element of consent and genuine change of conscience was missing ab initio. Minors, due to their young age, are vulnerable to manipulation and coercion. They may not understand the long-term ramifications of converting to another religion, and the perpetrator exploited the victim's age vulnerability to lure her, coercively convert her to Islam, and change her name to an Islamic one. All this showcased a clear case of religious animosity towards the victim due to her Hindu identity, making it a clear case of a religiously motivated hate crime. The exploitation of her youth stripped away any pretence of voluntary choice, revealing the perpetrator's calculated intent to prey on her innocence and shatter her Hindu roots through forced religious conversion. The act of luring and abducting the victim from her parents and family's protection further exposed the depth of this hatred. The perpetrator, Sheikh Salman, seized the fleeting moment when her relative stepped away for breakfast at Sirvel market, whisking her far away to Aurangabad in Maharashtra from Khargone, Madhya Pradesh. This deliberate removal from her family's protection was no impulsive act but a predatory strategy to isolate her completely, severing her from the safety of her Hindu upbringing and community support. By transporting her across districts, he ensured she could not easily return or seek help, creating the perfect conditions to coerce her conversion. Such actions showcased deep-seated religious animosity from the outset, as the perpetrator sought to alienate the girl permanently from her parents' protection and the Hindu world, enforcing his dominance through abduction and religious overwriting. The aspect of forcibly converting her to Islam elevated this crime to a profound violation rooted in hate. Forced conversion directly assaulted the victim's religious autonomy, treating her faith as disposable and inferior, something to be erased at will. The perpetrator showed utter disrespect for her religious identity by imposing Islam upon her against her will, denying her the basic human right to practise her faith freely. This was not a personal dispute but a targeted attack on her beliefs, where her Hindu identity became the very reason for her subjugation. In doing so, Sheikh Salman asserted religious supremacy over her religion, compelling her to abandon her spiritual heritage under duress. This coercive overwriting of her faith amounted to a hate crime motivated by religious animosity, as it sought to erase Hinduism from the life of a vulnerable minor girl. The deliberate name change compounded this assault, serving as a final act to completely sever her from her Hindu identity and kill her Hindu self entirely. By stripping away her given Hindu name and replacing it with a Muslim one, the perpetrator aimed to obliterate every trace of her origins, forcing her into a new identity that erased her past and family ties. This was no mere administrative step but a symbolic murder of her Hindu soul, intended to make her unrecognisable to her community and impossible to reclaim. Such an act dehumanised her, reducing her religion to something erasable and unworthy of preservation. It underscored the hate crime's religious core, as the name change was a trophy of conquest, designed to perpetuate her alienation and broadcast the perpetrator's victory over her Hindu identity. This case met several parameters of a religiously motivated offence. Therefore, this incident was added to the hate crime database of the Hinduphobia tracker, documenting its place in the ongoing pattern of anti-Hindu crimes.