Minor Hindu girl kidnapped after being lured over phone, forced to convert to Islam by Muslim man in Mirzapur, Uttar Pradesh
Mirzapur, Uttar Pradesh, India 
1 July, 2026
Case Summary
In Mirzapur district, Uttar Pradesh, a minor Hindu girl was lured through social media and kidnapped by a Muslim man identified as Asif. He then took her to Hyderabad and pressured her to convert to Islam and marry him. Police later rescued the victim from Hyderabad and arrested the accused. The Hinduphobia Tracker contacted the police about the incident and confirmed that the victim was a Hindu girl. According to the police, the minor girl, a resident of the Chilh police station area in Mirzapur district, went missing from her home on 2 July 2026. Following her disappearance, her family lodged a complaint at the Chil Police Station, based on which an FIR was registered against Asif, a resident of Bihar, for kidnapping. During the investigation, police found that the accused had established contact with the victim over the phone and gradually developed a friendship with her. He subsequently lured the minor away from her home and took her to Hyderabad. While keeping her there, the accused pressured the victim to convert to Islam and marry him. Acting on technical surveillance and location-based inputs, the Chil Police traced the victim's whereabouts to Hyderabad and coordinated with the Hyderabad Police to conduct a raid. The joint police team recovered the minor safely from the Hyderabad police station area and arrested the accused, Asif. Following the victim's recovery, police added charges relating to the forced religious conversion of a minor to the case. Further investigation and legal proceedings were underway at the time of writing this report.
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 minors. 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 that is often understated in such conversions or the attempts of such conversion is the role of loyalty and trust that might develop between the perpetrator and the victim. Fiduciary relationships are often abused to affect such religious conversion. For example, an educator transmitting the religious doctrine of a competing faith to a Hindu student. The Hindu student is likely to accept what the teacher is transmitting owing to the 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 proselytisation, 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 in discriminatory grounds, which 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 incident was included in the Hinduphobia Tracker because the victim was specifically targeted for religious conversion. The accused did not merely abduct a minor Hindu girl but also pressured her to abandon her faith and convert to Islam before marrying him. The attempt to change the victim's religious identity by isolating her transformed the offence from an ordinary crime into one that was motivated by religious hostility towards the victim's Hindu identity. First and foremost, 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. The accused exploited this vulnerability by first befriending the victim over the phone, gaining her trust, and then taking her away from her family before pressuring her to convert to Islam. This reflected a calculated course of conduct designed to place the victim in a position where she could be coerced into abandoning her faith. 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. The victim's existing Hindu faith was treated as an obstacle that had to be abandoned. Such conduct directly targeted the victim because she was a Hindu and therefore constituted a religiously motivated act. Moreover, the sequence of befriending the victim, taking her away from her home, transporting her to another city, and then pressuring her to convert demonstrated a sustained and purposeful course of conduct. Each step increased the accused's control over the victim while reducing her ability to seek help or resist the religious pressure being imposed upon her. Often in such cases, abduction serves a dual purpose: physical subjugation and religious humiliation. The intention was to break the victim down, emotionally, physically, and spiritually, so that she could be converted. The coercive environment was therefore integral to achieving the intended religious conversion. Since the targeting of the minor Hindu victim culminated in sustained pressure to renounce her faith and embrace Islam, this case reflected a deliberate attempt to alter her religious identity through deception, isolation and coercion. For these reasons, it has been documented in the Hinduphobia Tracker as a religiously motivated hate crime. Disclaimer: It is important to clarify that media reports do not specify the exact date on which the accused first began pressuring the victim to convert to Islam. Therefore, the Hinduphobia Tracker has recorded 2 July 2026, the date on which the victim went missing and the case came to the attention of the police, as the incident date for documentation purposes. This date may be revised if official information establishing an earlier date of the victim's ordeal 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
Arrested
Perpetrators Details
Perpetrators
Muslim Extremists
Perpetrators Range
One Person
Perpetrators Gender
male
Sources 
