Minor Hindu girl pressured to convert to Islam by Muslim family: victim's mother subjected to casteist slurs for opposing
Kanpur, Uttar Pradesh, India 
18 June, 2026
Case Summary
In the Babupurwa area of Kanpur, Uttar Pradesh, a minor Hindu girl was pressured for conversion by a Muslim family. Furthermore, when the victim's mother objected to these actions, she was verbally abused and subjected to casteist slurs. According to the complaint filed by a Dalit Hindu woman, her 16-year-old daughter was drawn into contact with a Muslim youth named Dilshad through a local woman named Sapna, who lived in the same neighbourhood. Sapna facilitated communication between the minor girl and Dilshad and subsequently introduced her to other members of his family, including his brother Chand and father Ansar. The complaint stated that after establishing contact with the minor, Dilshad, his brother Chand, father Ansar, and Sapna began pressuring the girl to marry Dilshad. Alongside the pressure for marriage, the family also compelled the minor to convert her religion to Islam. When the girl informed her mother about these developments, the mother visited the accused's residence to object to their actions. During the confrontation, Dilshad, Chand, and Ansar abused her and used caste-based slurs against her. The situation escalated further after the family approached the police. The complainant stated that the accused threatened to kill her and her family for resisting the proposed marriage and conversion. She further reported that after the matter was brought to the attention of law enforcement, the accused came to her residence and continued to abuse and intimidate the family. The complaint also named a woman identified as Asma, who introduced herself as a journalist, accusing her of visiting the family's home and issuing threats. Based on the complaint, Babupurwa police registered a case and initiated an investigation into the matter. Police officials stated that appropriate action would be taken and arrests would follow on the basis of the findings of the investigation.
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, with the tertiary category being - 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 perpetrator's contrasting faith. 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 transmits owing to the existence of a 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. The other sub-category selected here 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. Such cases where Hindu victims are harassed to convert to the perpetrator’s religion are rooted in animosity towards the victim’s religious identity and are therefore documented as religiously motivated hate crimes. The second primary category selected here is - Hate speech against Hindus. Within it, the sub-category selected here is - Anti-Hindu slurs, mocking faith. Anti-Hindu slurs and the deliberate mocking of the Hindu faith owing to religious animosity involve the usage of derogatory terms, stereotypes, or offensive references to religious practices, symbols, or figures. One of the common anti-Hindu slurs used against Hindus is “cow-worshipper” and “cow piss drinker”. The intention of using this term is to demean and mock Hindus as a group and their religious beliefs since Hindus consider the cow holy. Additionally, some symbols and the slurs attached to them have a historical context that exacerbates the insult, hate, stereotyping, dehumanisation and oppression against Hindus. Cow worship has been used for centuries to denigrate Hindus, insult their faith and oppress Hindus specifically as a religious group. There has been overwhelming documentation about how cow slaughter has been used to persecute Hindus with cow meat being thrown in temples and places of worship. There has also been overwhelming documentation where cow meat (beef) has been force-fed to Hindus to either forcefully convert them to Islam or denigrate their faith. Apart from cow worship, the Swastika – which holds deep religious significance for the Hindus – has also been misinterpreted and distorted to use as a slur against Hindus. Similarly, the worship of the Shivling has been used by supremacist ideologies and religions to denigrate Hindus owing to religious animosity. Such slurs and denigration stem out of inherent animosity and hate towards Hindus and their faith, therefore, it is categorised as hate speech targeted at Hindus specifically owing to their religious identity. This case has been added to the tracker because a minor Hindu girl was pressured for conversion by a Muslim family. Firstly, it is 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 or consenting to a relationship, and the Muslim perpetrators purposely targeted and exploited this vulnerability of the victim. Since this case exemplifies the use of coercion and manipulation to achieve religious conversion, it is a blatant act of religious hate, which is why it has been documented here in the hate tracker. Such acts are not merely criminal in nature; they are ideologically charged, revealing religious prejudice and a calculated intent to alter the religious identity of a minor without her volition. The use of grooming, where trust is built only to exploit, is an insidious method that exploits the child’s naivety and dependence. Furthermore, when the victim's mother objected, she was subjected to verbal abuse and casteist slurs by the accused. It can be argued that a caste-specific slur is aimed at her micro identity of belonging to the Dalit section of the Hindu community and not her Hindu identity itself. However, as far as Abrahamic religions are concerned, the micro identities of caste, region, and language are secondary. It is the religious identity that drives the animosity of the perpetrator against the Hindu victim. In this case, while Dilshad, Chand, and Ansar hurled caste abuses at the victim's mother, the animosity was driven by their animosity towards Hinduism and Hindus. While the immediate trigger was her opposition, the fact that caste slurs were hurled at the victim's mother by the perpetrators makes it a religiously motivated hate crime against the victim. 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. Therefore, religious conversions, even of minors, are often seen as a badge of honour, totally disregarding the methods used to achieve it. Taken together, the facts of this case reveal a pattern rooted in religious animosity where a minor Hindu girl was deliberately drawn into contact with a Muslim youth, subsequently pressured for marriage and religious conversion, and then subjected to intimidation when her family resisted. The threats directed at the victim and her relatives, coupled with the use of caste-based abuse against her mother, demonstrate that the accused did not respect the family's religious identity or their refusal to comply with the conversion effort. The targeting of a vulnerable minor, the pressure to abandon her faith, and the hostility shown towards the family when they objected elevate the incident beyond an ordinary criminal dispute and place it within the ambit of a religiously motivated hate incident. For these reasons, the case has been included in the Hinduphobia Tracker. Disclaimer: The Hinduphobia Tracker records incidents based on when an event occurred or when the victim's ordeal began. It is important to clarify that none of the media sources covering this case has specified the exact date when the victim was targeted and pressured for conversion. Therefore, for documentation purposes, we have recorded the date based on when the incident was reported in the media, 19 June 2026.
Victim Details
Total Victim
2
Deceased
0
Gender
- Male 0
- Female 2
- Third Gender 0
- Unknown 0
Caste
- SC/ST 2
- OBC 0
- General 0
- Unknown 0
Age Group
- Minor 1
- Adult 1
- Senior Citizen 1
- Unknown -1
Case Status
Complaint filed
Perpetrators Details
Perpetrators
Muslim Extremists
Perpetrators Range
From 2 To 5
Perpetrators Gender
both
Sources 
