Hindu minor girl pressured to convert to Islam, blackmailed and molested by Muslim men in Kanpur, Dehat
Kanpur Dehat, Uttar Pradesh, India 
3 July, 2026
Case Summary
A 14-year-old Hindu schoolgirl from the Musanagar police station area of Kanpur Dehat, Uttar Pradesh, was systematically targeted by three men who subjected her to grooming, blackmail, molestation, threats, and sustained pressure to convert to Islam. The minor girl was drawn into contact through the school bus driver, who exploited his position of trust to introduce her to another man and gradually isolate her. The perpetrators subsequently intimidated her with compromising photographs, threatened her family, attempted to sexually assault her, and repeatedly pressured her to abandon her faith and marry one of them. The Hindu minor travelled daily by school bus from the Musanagar police station area to attend her school in Kanpur city. During this period, the school bus driver, Mukhtar Ahmed Qureshi, established contact with the girl and gradually introduced her to his acquaintance, Raj Rain. Over time, the two cultivated a relationship with the minor by regularly interacting with her and providing her with gifts, chocolates, and other items. They also gave her a mobile phone for her use during the day, which was taken back from her after school each evening. As their contact with the Hindu girl increased, Mukhtar Ahmed Qureshi and Raj Rain began exerting influence over her. During this period, the minor was molested and compromising photographs of her were taken. The photographs later became a means of intimidation, with the perpetrators threatening to circulate them on social media if she refused to comply with their demands. They also threatened to kill her and her family, leaving the schoolgirl living in fear and under constant pressure. The Hindu girl was repeatedly pressured to convert to Islam and marry Raj Rain. Whenever she resisted these demands, the threats intensified. Alongside the threats to make her photographs viral, the perpetrators continued coercing her to abandon her faith and accept marriage, causing prolonged fear and mental distress. On 20th April 2026, the perpetrators handed the Hindu minor a packet of an intoxicating substance and instructed her to mix it into the food at her home. They told her that it would not harm her parents and that they would merely lose consciousness for a few hours. Believing what she had been told, the schoolgirl mixed the substance into her mother's food while her father was away. Later that day, the Hindu minor was called to a ruined building near her home, where Mukhtar Ahmed Qureshi, Raj Rain and their associate, Monis, were already present. Once she reached the location, the three attempted to force themselves upon her. The schoolgirl managed to resist their assault, escaped from the spot and returned home, where she disclosed the entire incident to her father. The Hindu girl further stated that the perpetrators had earlier compelled her to pose for a photograph with their hands around her neck. They subsequently used that photograph, along with images taken from her social media accounts, to create a fake social media profile. The photographs were edited and circulated online with objectionable comments in an effort to defame and humiliate her publicly. The perpetrators also attempted to obtain access to the Hindu girl's social media account by coercing her into revealing her account password. When she refused to comply, they edited and circulated photographs of her taken during Holi celebrations on social media. Throughout this period, they continued making derogatory remarks about her religion while repeatedly pressuring her to convert to Islam and accept marriage. According to the Hindu girl's father, his daughter became visibly frightened and withdrawn during this period. After repeatedly questioning her about her behaviour, she revealed the sequence of events involving the bus driver, Raj Rain and Monis. The family subsequently discovered that edited photographs of the minor had been circulated online and that she had been subjected to sustained blackmail. The victim's father subsequently approached the Musanagar Police Station and lodged a complaint detailing the sequence of events. Based on his complaint and the statements recorded during the investigation, the police registered a case against Mukhtar Ahmed Qureshi, Raj Rain and Monis under multiple provisions relating to kidnapping, molestation, attempt to rape, criminal intimidation, offences under the Protection of Children from Sexual Offences (POCSO) Act, and the Uttar Pradesh Prohibition of Unlawful Religious Conversion Act. During the investigation, police stated that Mukhtar Ahmed Qureshi had introduced the Hindu minor to Raj Rain, after which the two repeatedly pressured her to convert to Islam and marry. Investigators further recorded that when she resisted these demands, the three men lured her to an isolated location where they molested her, photographed her and threatened her with death while continuing to pressure her to abandon her faith. Police formed two teams to trace the perpetrators following registration of the case. Mukhtar Ahmed Qureshi and Raj Rain were arrested, while raids were conducted to apprehend the third named individual, Monis, who was at large at the time. Officials stated that the investigation was being conducted from all angles and that further legal action would be taken based on the evidence collected. Officials confirmed that the case was being investigated under the relevant legal provisions, including those relating to unlawful religious conversion and offences against a minor. At the time the case came to public attention, Mukhtar Ahmed Qureshi and Raj Rain had been arrested, while police efforts to apprehend Monis were ongoing. The investigation remained ongoing, and the authorities stated that additional action would be taken as further evidence emerged during the inquiry.
Why it is Hate Crime ?
This case has been added to the tracker under the primary category of - Predatory Proselytisation. Within it, the sub-category selected is - Proselytisation by grooming, brainwashing, manipulation or subtle indoctrination. Under this, the tertiary categories are Conversion of minor, Rape and sexual assault/harassment, Victim says she was brainwashed/groomed, and Family claims grooming. 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. Another sub-category selected is Harassments, 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 other subcategory is- Attempting to convert/converting by denigrating Hinduism. In several cases, Hindus are converted or an attempt is made to convert Hindus by denigrating their faith, Hinduism. In such cases, the Hindus associate with the non-Hindu perpetrators often by choice and then, the attempt to convert them by insulting their faith, showing the faith down etc begins. An example of this would be a non-Hindu gathering where the Hindus are attending the gathering of their own free will. However, once they attend the gathering, there is an explicit attempt to convert them by abusing their faith and hailing the faith of the perpetrator. The denigration of the Hindu faith is often based on misrepresentation of the Hindu faith, its doctrine and scriptures and insult to espoused traditions if not blatant lies about Hindu beliefs and ways. Such conversions or attempts at conversions are driven by animosity towards the Hindu faith and are therefore documented as religiously motivated hate crimes. The second primary category selected here is - Crimes against women in relationships and other sexual crimes. Within it, the sub-category selected is - Brainwashed and/or groomed, with the tertiary categories being - Conversion of minor, Rape and sexual assault/harassment, Victim says she was brainwashed/groomed, and Family claims grooming. 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 subcategory selected here is - Assault or threat upon refusal to convert. When Hindu women are in a relationship with non-Hindu men, there are cases where the woman faces threats or assault after she refuses to convert and change her religious identity owing to pressure/force by the non-Hindu man. Such relationships may be consensual with the religious identity of the non-Hindu man known to the victim. Somewhere along the relationship, the non-Hindu man starts pressurizing the Hindu woman to convert to Islam and upon her refusal, assaults or threatens the victim. Such cases are driven by specific religious motivations and against the religious identity of the victim and are therefore qualified as hate crimes. Cases where the Hindu woman converts to Islam and does not file a complaint about the force or threat, are not considered a part of the hate tracker, even though, it may be argued that the woman was brainwashed or threatened to convert to Islam. Another sub-category selected is - Blackmailed to convert. When Hindu women are in a relationship with non-Hindu men, there are cases where the woman is blackmailed to convert her religion, owing to her religious identity of being a Hindu. Such relationships may be consensual with the religious identity of the non-Hindu man known to the victim, however, there could be cases where the relationship is not consensual and the non-Hindu man starts blackmailing a Hindu woman to convert her religion. In these cases, it is often seen that the Hindu woman is blackmailed with intimate photos and/or videos, threats of harm to her or her family, threats of violence etc. Such cases are driven by specific religious motivations and against the religious identity of the victim and are therefore qualified as hate crimes. This case qualified as a religiously motivated hate crime because the Muslim perpetrators deliberately targeted a Hindu minor through sustained grooming, manipulation and coercion with the objective of compelling her to abandon her faith and convert to Islam. The victim's age was central to the manner in which the perpetrators operated. As a 14-year-old schoolgirl, she was particularly vulnerable to emotional influence, intimidation and psychological manipulation. The perpetrators exploited the fact that the school bus was her daily and unavoidable means of transport, allowing them repeated and consistent access to her without raising immediate suspicion. By cultivating contact with a Hindu child in an environment she regarded as routine and safe, they gradually established influence over her before escalating to religious pressure. A minor cannot fully comprehend the lifelong consequences of religious conversion and marriage in the same manner as an adult, making any attempt to secure religious compliance through manipulation fundamentally coercive. The exploitation of both her youth and her Hindu identity demonstrates that the grooming was not directed towards forming a genuine relationship but towards systematically breaking down the resistance of a vulnerable Hindu child to facilitate religious conversion. The perpetrators repeatedly pressured the Hindu minor to convert to Islam and marry one of them, demonstrating that religion was not incidental to the crime but formed one of its central objectives. Their insistence that she abandon her Hindu faith before marriage reflected an attempt to erase her existing religious identity and replace it with another through sustained religious pressure. The demand that a Hindu child renounce her religion in order to enter marriage cannot be viewed separately from the wider pattern of coercion she endured. Instead of respecting her freedom to practise and retain her faith, the perpetrators treated her Hindu identity as an obstacle that had to be removed before the relationship could proceed. Such conduct demonstrates a clear intent to subordinate the victim's religious identity and replace it through coercion, reflecting hostility towards her continued existence as a Hindu. The religiously motivated targeting also escalated into sexual violence when the three perpetrators lured the Hindu minor to an isolated location and attempted to force themselves upon her after she had resisted their demands. The sexual assault did not occur in isolation but formed part of the broader pattern of intimidation, coercion and religious pressure that had already been imposed upon the child. She was deliberately isolated from the safety of her home, stripped of her bodily autonomy and subjected to a terrifying ordeal from which she escaped only through her own resistance. Attempting to sexually violate a child in order to dominate and terrorise her after sustained efforts to compel religious conversion demonstrates an extreme level of cruelty. The assault served to further intimidate the victim and reinforce the perpetrators' control over a vulnerable Hindu minor who had refused to submit to their demands. The Hindu minor herself stated that she had been gradually manipulated, threatened and pressured over an extended period. She described how the perpetrators cultivated contact with her, intimidated her and repeatedly sought to influence her decisions before escalating to threats, blackmail and repeated attempts to make her abandon her Hindu faith. Her statement established that the grooming was not a single incident but a sustained process through which the perpetrators gradually attempted to gain influence over a Hindu child before coercing her into religious conversion. Similarly, the victim's father informed the police that his daughter had been deliberately influenced over time by the school bus driver and his associates before she eventually disclosed the entire ordeal after becoming visibly frightened and distressed. Together, their statements establish a consistent pattern of grooming directed at a vulnerable Hindu minor for the purpose of religious coercion. The perpetrators reinforced their conversion demands through continuous harassment, intimidation and threats of extreme violence. They threatened to kill the Hindu minor and her family if she resisted their demands or disclosed the abuse to anyone. By creating an atmosphere of constant fear, they sought to isolate her from those who could protect her and ensure that she remained too frightened to approach either her family or the authorities. The threats were directly connected to their continuing efforts to compel her to convert to Islam, demonstrating that intimidation functioned as a tool to break her resistance to abandoning her Hindu faith. Such sustained coercion reveals that the perpetrators viewed violence and fear as legitimate means of achieving religious compliance from a Hindu child. The perpetrators also weaponised blackmail to intensify the pressure upon the Hindu minor to convert. After molesting her, they took compromising photographs and repeatedly threatened to circulate them on social media if she refused to comply with their demands. They further created fake social media profiles using her photographs and attempted to publicly humiliate and defame her. The blackmail was therefore not an isolated act of extortion but an instrument used to force a Hindu child into accepting religious conversion and marriage against her will. By exploiting the fear of public humiliation, social stigma and damage to her reputation, the perpetrators sought to leave the victim with no meaningful choice other than submission. The use of sexually explicit blackmail to compel a Hindu minor to renounce her faith demonstrates a calculated pattern of religious coercion in which sexual exploitation and psychological intimidation were deliberately combined to overcome the victim's resistance and erase her religious identity. The other relevant aspect was that the accused also resorted to insulting Hinduism to provoke and alienate the Hindu girl from her faith. This tactic is usually employed not only to assert the perceived superiority of one's own religious beliefs over Hinduism but also to instil doubt in the minds of Hindus, making them more susceptible to conversion. Since the victim was a minor, it indicates a lack of consent and genuine change of conscience. It is a well-established fact that children are more susceptible to manipulation since they are still developing emotionally, cognitively, and socially. Their brains are not fully mature, making them more vulnerable to influence and less capable of critically evaluating information. Moreover, subtle manipulation tactics can be difficult to detect; this makes it challenging for parents to identify and address instances of religious manipulation. Consequently, cases involving religious manipulation of minors not only represent an infringement on an individual's religious freedom but also demonstrate a calculated strategy of targeting those who are less able to resist or understand the long-term implications of conversion. Taken together, the systematic grooming of a Hindu minor through exploitation of her daily school commute, the deliberate targeting of her age and vulnerability, the sustained efforts to compel her conversion to Islam and marriage, the attempted sexual assault after she resisted, the victim's and her father's statements describing prolonged grooming, the repeated death threats directed at both the child and her family, and the use of compromising photographs and social media blackmail to force religious compliance establish a clear pattern of religiously motivated targeting. The victim was not selected at random. She was deliberately identified as a vulnerable Hindu child whose age, dependence and religious identity could be exploited through coercion, intimidation and sexual violence. The perpetrators consistently used fear, manipulation and abuse as instruments to pressure her into abandoning her Hindu faith, demonstrating that religion remained central to both the targeting of the victim and the continued harm inflicted upon her. Accordingly, this case constitutes a religiously motivated hate crime and has been documented in the hate crime database. Disclaimer: The exact date on which the initial contact between the Hindu minor girl and the Muslim perpetrators first began was not specified in the available sources. Therefore, 4th July 2026, the publication date of the earliest available report, has been used as the indicative incident date in the tracker. This date was recorded solely for archival and documentation purposes.
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
male
Sources 
