Minor Hindu girl stalked, sexually assaulted and pressured to convert to Islam by Muslim man in Saharanpur, Uttar Pradesh

Case ID : 30a9542 | Location : Saharanpur, Uttar Pradesh, India | Date of Incident : Tue, 7 July, 2026

Case ID : 30a9542

Saharanpur, Uttar Pradesh, India

7 July, 2026

Minor Hindu girl stalked, sexually assaulted and pressured to convert to Islam by Muslim man in Saharanpur, Uttar Pradesh

Predatory Proselytisation

Harassment, threats, coercion for conversion

Case Summary

In Saharanpur, Uttar Pradesh, a minor Hindu girl was stalked and pressured for religious conversion by a Muslim man named Sufian Khan. She was threatened with the killing of her family and also sexually assaulted by the accused. The incident came to light when the victim's father filed a complaint at the Kotwali Mandi police station. He stated in the complaint that the accused, Sufian Khan, had been constantly stalking his daughter and had threatened to kill her family if she resisted. The complaint also stated that the accused pressured the teenager to convert to Islam against her will. During the investigation, the police discovered evidence that led to the addition of sections related to rape under the Indian Penal Code. Given the seriousness of the case, the SSP ordered immediate arrests. Following this, Kotwali Mandi police took action and arrested the accused, Sufian Khan. According to the police, the accused was originally from Maharajganj district and was living on rent in the New Ashok Nagar area of East Delhi. The investigation revealed that the accused had a prior criminal case registered against him. Police were investigating how and when the accused and the victim came into contact, and whether any other individuals were involved in the incident. Electronic evidence and other aspects of the case were also examined. Police stated that the investigation into the case was ongoing and that further legal action would be taken based on the facts that emerged. Meanwhile, the victim's family demanded strict action against the accused.

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 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 in discriminatory grounds that have 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 documented cases, 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 case was included in the Hinduphobia Tracker because the offence was not confined to stalking and sexual violence. The minor victim was specifically pressured to abandon her Hindu faith and convert to Islam, making her religious identity the central trigger behind the abuse. The attempt to impose religious conversion transformed the crime into a religiously motivated act targeting a Hindu victim. The sustained intimidation, threats and pressure to change her faith demonstrated that the abuse was directed towards breaking the victim's religious identity rather than merely committing a criminal offence. The perpetrator deliberately stalked the minor girl not only to gain control over her but also to compel her to embrace Islam. This established that the victim was profiled because she was a Hindu, making her religious identity the real target. Furthermore, the use of fear and intimidation to force a change of religion amounted to coercive religious pressure rather than any voluntary expression of faith. The threats were intended to leave the victim with no meaningful choice, thereby undermining her freedom of conscience and her right to practise her ancestral religion without fear. Such instances of forced proselytisation are manifestations of doctrinal hostility associated with Abrahamic religions such as Islam and Christianity, which regard non-adherents as lacking the true faith and encourage their conversion. This leads to the dehumanisation of those who do not share the belief system and creates an environment in which coercive conversion, intimidation, and manipulation are used as instruments for stripping Hindu individuals of their religious identity. Taken together, the pattern of targeting, intimidation and coercive pressure reflected a calculated attempt to erase the victim's Hindu identity by forcing a religious conversion. The abuse was therefore rooted not only in criminal intent but also in hostility towards the victim's professed faith, warranting its documentation as a religiously motivated hate crime against a Hindu victim. Disclaimer: The Hinduphobia Tracker records incident dates based on when the victim’s ordeal begins or when the crime occurs, rather than on the date the matter is reported in the media. However, in the present case, media reports do not specify the exact date of the incident. Therefore, the date of first media reporting, that is, 08 July 2026, has been taken as the indicative incident date. This date is recorded solely for documentation purposes.