Minor Hindu girl pressured to convert to Islam through blackmail and threats by group of Muslim men in Etawah, Uttar Pradesh
Etawah, Uttar Pradesh, India 
17 May, 2026
Case Summary
In the Etawah district of Uttar Pradesh, a 13-year-old Hindu girl was pressured, blackmailed and threatened for religious conversion to Islam by a group of Muslim youth. According to the FIR lodged by the victim's family, the minor victim attended dance classes where she came into contact with a Muslim woman, who subsequently introduced her to several Muslim men. They established contact with the Hindu girl under the pretext of teaching her dance and gradually began pressuring her to convert to Islam. Over a period of around one and a half months, the perpetrators maintained regular communication with the minor girl and subjected her to sustained psychological pressure. The victim's family stated that she was blackmailed using recordings of video calls, with threats that the footage would be made public if she did not comply. She was also pressured to meet the accused late at night, remain in constant contact with them, and embrace Islam. When she resisted, she was threatened with death and warned that her family's social reputation would be ruined. The accused also sent messages to the girl's mobile phone threatening to take her to Doha, Qatar, where she would be forcibly converted to Islam. Following the complaint, the police registered an FIR under 11 serious legal provisions, including sections of the Uttar Pradesh Prohibition of Unlawful Conversion of Religion Act, and launched an investigation. The victim's family submitted digital evidence, including WhatsApp chats, call records, screenshots, and other electronic material, and requested a forensic examination of the relevant devices and mobile numbers. During the course of the investigation, the police detained five individuals for questioning, including three Muslim men, a Muslim teenage girl, and a woman. Police officials examined social media interactions, WhatsApp conversations, and other digital evidence. At the time of reporting, investigators stated that the inquiry was ongoing and that further legal action would be taken based on the evidence established during the investigation.
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, 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 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. The other sub-category 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. 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. This incident has been classified as a hate crime because the criminal conduct was intrinsically linked to the victim's Hindu religious identity. The central objective was not merely to influence the victim's personal choices but to persuade or compel her to abandon her existing faith and embrace another religion. 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, and the Muslim perpetrator 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. Secondly, the Muslim perpetrators attempted to force the minor Hindu victim to renounce her religion and convert to Islam. Pressuring a Hindu individual to discard her religious faith and embrace another was a direct attack on her religious identity and dignity. 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, the use of blackmail and threats to facilitate religious conversion is another factor that elevates this incident into the category of a hate crime. In such cases, coercive methods serve a dual purpose: they subjugate the victim through fear while simultaneously undermining her religious identity. The objective is not merely to intimidate but to emotionally and psychologically break down the victim's resistance so that she becomes more susceptible to abandoning her faith. Such coercion transforms religious conversion from a matter of personal choice into one of compulsion, stripping the victim of her freedom of conscience. This is not random criminal conduct but targeted coercion directed at the victim's religious identity, reflecting hostility towards her faith and an intent to replace it through intimidation and exploitation. 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. Since such predatory actions stem from doctrinal animosity towards the Hindu faith and its adherents, this case is being documented as a religiously motivated hate crime. Disclaimer: It is important to clarify that none of the media sources covering this case has specified the exact date when the victim's ordeal began, though it is mentioned that she was being pressured for conversion for about one and a half months. Thus, to document this case, we have used an indicative date, 18 May 2026, as a placeholder to represent the beginning of her suffering. While media coverage of the incident emerged on 3 July 2026, the Hinduphobia Tracker records the incident based on when the victim’s ordeal began, not when it was reported. Disclaimer: It is important to clarify that media reports do not clearly specify the exact number of individuals directly involved in pressuring the minor for religious conversion. However, since the police detained five individuals in connection with the case, the Hinduphobia Tracker has recorded five perpetrators for documentation purposes. This count may be revised if further official information becomes available.
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
Case sub-judice
Perpetrators Details
Perpetrators
Muslim Extremists
Perpetrators Range
From 2 To 5
Perpetrators Gender
both
Sources 
