Minor Hindu girl abducted by Muslim man; accused was attempting to forcibly transport her to Surat to facilitate religious conversion
Kanpur, Uttar Pradesh, India 
20 July, 2026
Case Summary
On 21st July 2026, a minor Hindu girl from the Sonkar community was rescued after a Muslim man, Shakeeb, was intercepted while attempting to forcibly transport her to Surat, Gujarat, with the intention of converting her to Islam. The incident came to light when Shakeeb, a resident of Sultanpur Ghosh in Fatehpur district, was stopped by members of the Vishwa Hindu Parishad (VHP) after an autorickshaw driver became suspicious that the girl was being taken against her will. The VHP members intercepted the vehicle near Jarib Chowki intersection, questioned the pair, and handed them over to the Sisamau police. According to former VHP city convenor Krishna Tiwari, the autorickshaw driver noticed the girl's condition and suspected that she was being abducted. He immediately alerted VHP workers, who reached the spot and stopped the autorickshaw before it could leave the area. During questioning, Shakeeb said that he and the girl had left their homes on 18 July 2026 (Saturday). VHP members stated that the girl had been lured into a relationship by Shakeeb and was being taken to Surat against her will. Krishna Tiwari further added that Shakeeb wanted to convert the Hindu girl to Islam after taking her to Surat. He said that VHP had recently dealt with multiple cases involving Hindu girls being trafficked to Surat under similar circumstances. According to him, this was the third such case intercepted by VHP workers, and he proclaimed that Shakeeb was connected to the same network involved in those incidents. However, these statements were made by VHP representatives and were not independently reported by the police at the time. Sisamau Station House Officer Rakesh Kumar Singh said that the Fatehpur police had been informed about the case and that a police team was travelling to Kanpur to take custody of both the minor Hindu girl and Shakeeb. The police initiated further questioning to establish the circumstances under which the girl had left her home and to determine whether any criminal offences, including abduction or other related charges, had been committed.
Why it is Hate Crime ?
The primary category in this case is: Predatory Proselytisation, with the subcategory selected as: Harassment, threat, 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 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. In this case, a Hindu minor girl was abducted and subjected to intimidation. The purpose of this torture was to coerce the victim into abandoning her faith and accepting Islam. The underlying motivation of predatory proselytisation, driven by animosity towards the victim's professed faith, was evident. The perpetrators used intimidation as a tool to pressure the girl into converting, with the central aim of separating her from her Hindu identity. Given that religion was the primary motivation, this case has been classified as a hate crime. Another important aspect is that the victim was a minor, which indicates a lack of consent and a 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 able to critically evaluate information. Moreover, subtle manipulation tactics can be difficult to detect, especially when employed by trusted authority figures in positions of influence. 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, making it a significant case of religiously motivated hate crime. For this reason, this case has been added to the tracker.
Victim Details
Total Victim
1
Deceased
0
Gender
- Male 0
- Female 1
- Third Gender 0
- Unknown 0
Caste
- SC/ST 1
- OBC 0
- General 0
- Unknown 0
Age Group
- Minor 1
- Adult 0
- Senior Citizen 0
- Unknown 0
Case Status
Case sub-judice
Perpetrators Details
Perpetrators
Muslim Extremists
Perpetrators Range
From 5 to 10
Perpetrators Gender
male
Sources 
