Minor Hindu girl abducted and raped by Muslim man who posed as a Hindu using images of Hindu deities

Case ID : 30a948d | Location : Patna, Bihar, India | Date of Incident : Tue, 30 June, 2026

Case ID : 30a948d

Patna, Bihar, India

30 June, 2026

Minor Hindu girl abducted and raped by Muslim man who posed as a Hindu using images of Hindu deities

Crimes against women in relationships and other sexual crimes

Man pretends to be Hindu

Case Summary

In Patna, Bihar, a minor Hindu girl was kidnapped and sexually assaulted by a Muslim man named Mohammad Shamshad Alam, who deceived her by pretending to be a Hindu. According to reports, the minor Hindu girl, reported to be 13 or 14 years old, and a Class 8 student at a government school, had left her home on 1 July 2026 to buy groceries but did not return. Her family subsequently lodged a missing person complaint at the Gardanibagh Police Station. On the morning of 4 July, the girl's family spotted her lying unconscious in the rear seat of an auto-rickshaw near the Planetarium on Vidyapati Road in Patna. The auto was being driven by the Muslim accused, Mohammad Shamshad Alam, a resident of Vaishali district. The family intercepted the vehicle, apprehended Shamshad, and handed him over to the police. The victim, who was unconscious and unable to speak, was taken to New Gardner Hospital for medical treatment. According to the victim's family, Shamshad had kidnapped the minor and kept her with him for three days, during which he repeatedly raped her while driving around Patna in his auto-rickshaw. The family stated that he concealed his Muslim identity by using photographs of Hindu deities, including Lord Shiva and Goddess Parvati, as his WhatsApp display picture to portray himself as a Hindu and gain the trust of Hindu girls. They further stated that he used this method to lure Hindu girls into relationships. During police interrogation, Shamshad stated that he had married a Hindu woman near the High Court shrine in Patna in 2025 and that they had an eight-month-old daughter. He also told investigators that he had married the minor girl at the Mainpura temple three days before she was recovered. Based on the complaint lodged by the victim's family, Gardanibagh Police registered a case and launched an investigation. Police alerted nearby police stations and conducted search operations using both technical surveillance and human intelligence, leading to the recovery of the minor with assistance from Kotwali Police Station. Mohammad Shamshad Alam was arrested, the scene was preserved, and a forensic science team was called to examine the evidence. Police stated that further legal proceedings would be based on the victim's statement, the findings of her medical examination, forensic evidence, and other material collected during the course of the investigation.

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 - Man pretends to be Hindu. When a non-Hindu man pretends to be a Hindu to deceive a Hindu woman into a relationship, the act is seen as triggered by malafide intentions. In some cases, the woman eventually accepts the man’s original religious identity and converts after the man’s identity is revealed. These cases could be argued as cases of religious brainwashing and a result of the pressure a woman feels after getting into a relationship with a man. The woman, it can be argued, also changed her religious identity because of the stigma she believes she might face if she chooses to walk out of a deceptive relationship. However, for the purpose of documenting hate crimes, the cases in this subcategory are limited to those where there is explicit violence aimed at religious conversion against the wishes of the victim (force-feeding beef, blackmailing with intimate videos, rape on refusal to convert, etc), or if the woman herself complains of the man’s religious deception. In such cases, it is established that the deception of the non-Hindu man had a specific aim of religious conversion or targeting of the victim due to her Hindu religious identity, therefore, making it a religiously motivated hate crime. This case has been added to the tracker because the minor Hindu victim was specifically targeted through religious deception. The accused, Mohammad Shamshad Alam, deliberately concealed his Muslim identity by using photographs of revered Hindu deities to gain the trust of Hindu girls. The use of sacred Hindu religious imagery as a tool to deceive and lure a Hindu minor demonstrates that the victim's religious identity was not incidental but formed an integral part of the method employed to target her. Rather than approaching the victim openly, the accused exploited symbols that hold deep religious significance for Hindus to create a false sense of familiarity and trust before abducting and sexually assaulting her. The deliberate appropriation of Hindu religious symbols for the purpose of deceiving a Hindu victim reflects more than ordinary impersonation. Religious symbols occupy a sacred place in the lives of believers and are meant to inspire devotion and reverence. Using images of Hindu deities as instruments of deception to facilitate the targeting of a Hindu girl amounts to the misuse and instrumentalisation of those sacred symbols for criminal ends. Such conduct demonstrates a disregard for the sanctity of Hindu religious beliefs and exploits the victim's religious trust to make her more vulnerable. The reported use of Hindu religious imagery as bait indicates that the accused viewed the victim's Hindu identity as something to be manipulated and exploited rather than respected. The accused deliberately concealed his religious identity to lure the minor girl, before abducting her. This itself is a clear manifestation of bias and malicious intent towards the victim's religion. By concealing his true identity, he exploited her trust, targeting her under false pretences. This indicates a premeditated intent to manipulate her based on her religious background. In cases like these, the tactic of adopting a false Hindu identity to manipulate and "ensnare" a Hindu individual is not just an act of personal betrayal but can also be interpreted as an expression of disdain or disregard for Hinduism and its customs that reflects a deeper animosity towards Hindus and their beliefs. The abduction and repeated sexual assault of the minor were also inseparable from the religious deception that preceded them. This false Hindu identity enabled him to lure the minor away from her family, after which she was abducted, confined for three days, and repeatedly raped. The impersonation was therefore not an incidental aspect of the case but a fundamental element that facilitated the commission of the offences. Had the accused not presented himself as a Hindu and exploited the trust associated with Hindu religious identity and sacred symbols, the victim would not have been deceived in the manner. For these reasons, the incident has been categorised as a hate crime in the tracker. The misuse of sacred Hindu imagery to falsely portray a Hindu identity, combined with the targeting of a Hindu minor through that deception, demonstrates that the victim's religious identity was central to the commission of the offence. The exploitation of Hindu religious symbols to gain the confidence of Hindu girls before subjecting one of them to abduction and sexual assault constitutes an expression of religiously motivated targeting and hostility towards Hindus, warranting its inclusion in the tracker.