Case Summary

In the Balrampur district, Uttar Pradesh, a Hindu girl was lured under the pretext of marriage, raped, and forcibly converted to Islam by a Muslim man named Aliraja alias Altaf. The incident came to light after the victim's father, Vijay Pratap Singh, lodged a complaint at the Utraula police station on 23 April 2026. He stated that his daughter was lured and taken away by an unknown man on the pretext of marriage. Acting on the complaint, the police registered a case and initiated a swift investigation using surveillance and technical inputs. Police rescued the victim, who was found to be in Lucknow along with the accused on 24 April 2026. The investigation revealed that the accused, Aliraja alias Altaf, a resident of Mohalla Rafinagar in Utraula, had lured the victim away with the promise of marriage and transported her to Lucknow. During the course of the investigation, it was also revealed that the accused had forcibly converted the Hindu girl to Islam and changed her name before subjecting her to sexual assault. The victim was recovered safely, and her medical examination and statement recording were undertaken as part of the legal process. Based on the findings, the police invoked stringent provisions, including Sections 3 and 5 of the Uttar Pradesh Prohibition of Unlawful Conversion of Religion Act and relevant provisions pertaining to rape under criminal law, which were added to the existing FIR. The accused was arrested at the Kaiserbagh bus stand in Lucknow while attempting to flee towards Azamgarh, and was subsequently produced before a court and remanded to judicial custody. The incident triggered public concern in the area, with residents demanding strict legal action, while the police stated that further proceedings would be carried out in accordance with the law based on evidence uncovered during the ongoing investigation.

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Why it is Hate Crime ?

This case has been added to the tracker under the primary category of - Crimes against women in relationships and other sexual crimes. Within it, the sub-category selected is- Brainwashed and/or Groomed, with the tertiary category being - 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. The other sub-category selected is - Forced conversion before marriage. In such cases, a non-Hindu man is in a relationship with a Hindu woman when the pressure to convert her religion begins to manifest. In such cases, typically, two patterns emerge. First, when the relationship is consensual, and the religious identity of the perpetrator is known to the Hindu woman in the relationship, however, at some point during the relationship, the non-Hindu man starts to force the victim to convert her religion and give up her Hindu religious identity. The second is when the woman gets into a marriage with the man pretending to share her faith. Later, when the truth is revealed, the man starts pressuring the woman to convert her religion and give up her religious identity. In both the situations, the methods used to force the victim to convert her religion often revolve around force-feeding beef, forcing her to wear hijab, forcing her to read the Kalma or even pressurizing the victim to do ‘Nikah’, which is marriage under Islamic law, with a prerequisite being conversion to Islam. Cases where a Hindu woman consensually converts to Islam in a relationship will be left out of the hate crime database, even though it could be argued in several cases that the conversion was a result of religious brainwashing. This case has been added to the tracker because a Hindu girl was lured, abducted, raped, and forcibly converted to Islam by a Muslim man named Aliraja alias Altaf. Firstly, the accused used the false promise of marriage to lure the victim, with the clear intent of taking her away from her family and placing her in a situation of vulnerability and control. The deception was not incidental but was rooted in religious animosity, as the accused later abused her and forcibly converted her. The sequence of actions indicated premeditation and a targeted effort to exploit the victim’s trust. Secondly, the accused took the victim away and forcibly converted her to Islam. Compelling a Hindu girl to renounce her faith under pressure constituted a direct violation of her religious freedom, identity, and personal autonomy. It was not a matter of personal choice; it was coercion rooted in hostility towards the victim's Hindu identity. Such an attempt reflects religious animosity because the act was not simply about personal differences but about erasing the victim’s Hindu faith, making it a religiously motivated crime. Thirdly, after forcibly converting her, the accused subjected her to sexual assault. Often in such cases, sexual violence serves a dual purpose: physical subjugation and religious humiliation. The intention was to break the victim down, emotionally, physically, and spiritually, so as to make her submit to his demands and keep the conversion permanent. This was not random violence; it was systematic, targeted, and rooted in religious animosity Such actions stem from inherent hostility towards the victim's professed faith since Abrahamic faiths believe that any non-adherent to the faith is subject to being dehumanised till they convert. Such acts were not merely personal crimes; they were rooted in a desire to dominate and erase the religious identity of the victim. Such predatory actions stem from doctrinal animosity towards the Hindu faith and its adherents. The coercive imposition of religious change, combined with physical and sexual violence, indicated that the crime extended beyond individual wrongdoing into targeted exploitation involving her identity. On this basis, the case has been added to the hate crime database. Disclaimer: It is important to clarify that none of the media sources covering this case has specified the exact date when the accused came into contact with the victim, though it is mentioned that he abducted her on 23 April 2026. Therefore, for documentation purposes, we have recorded the date based on when the victim was abducted, 23 April 2026.