Minor Hindu girl blackmailed and sexually exploited for religious conversion by Muslim man in Bareilly, Uttar Pradesh
Bareilly, Uttar Pradesh, India 
21 July, 2026
Case Summary
In Bareilly, Uttar Pradesh, a Hindu minor girl was lured into a hotel, where she was sexually exploited by a Muslim man, Shohibuddin alias Shoaib. He raped the girl, recorded an objectionable video of the assault and circulated it on social media while pressuring her to convert to Islam. According to reports, on 22 July 2026, the minor Hindu girl was taken to the Blue Diamond Hotel by Shoaib in Izzatnagar, Bareilly. During this time, members of a Hindu organisation reached the hotel on July 22, 2026, after which a dispute occurred and police were informed. According to the police investigation, the accused, Shohibuddin alias Shoaib, had deceived the minor girl, sexually exploited her and recorded objectionable videos of her. The investigation later revealed that the recorded video was subsequently circulated on social media, after which the girl was blackmailed and pressured to convert to Islam, which led to severe psychological distress. Police arrested Shohibuddin alias Shoaib, and an FIR has been registered against him and two of his associates, including one juvenile. During Shoaib's interrogation, investigators uncovered information that young Hindu women were lured into compromising situations, their objectionable videos were recorded and later used for blackmail. These methods were used to pressure victims into religious conversion to Islam. As of the date of writing this report, the investigation was underway to trace the remaining accused, identify everyone involved in recording and circulating the video, and establish the full sequence of events that culminated in the death of the Hindu minor girl.
Why it is Hate Crime ?
The primary category selected in this case is: Predatory Proselytisation with the subcategory selected as: Suicide after pressure to convert. When there is pressure, threat or coercion employed upon the Hindu victim to convert to a different religion, in several cases, owing to the humiliation or pressure/threat, the victim commits suicide. In such cases, the pressure/threat/intimidation/coercion/violence itself is driven by animosity towards the victim’s Hindu faith. The pressure/threat that is employed leads to the Hindu victim taking his own life. Since the victim’s faith is at the heart of the pressure to convert and the ensuing suicide by the victim, such cases are considered religiously motivated hate crimes. The other 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 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. The other sub-category selected here is - Proselytisation by grooming, brainwashing, manipulation or subtle indoctrination, with the tertiary category being - Conversion of minor and Rape and sexual assault/harassment. 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. In this case, pressure to change the victim's religion was not an isolated incident but was part of a sequence of coercive acts that culminated in her death. The Hindu minor girl was first sexually assaulted, after which an objectionable video was recorded and used to blackmail her. The demand for conversion was not merely a religious request but an element of coercion that, combined with sexual exploitation and blackmail, intensified the victim's fear, humiliation, and psychological trauma. 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 attempt to compel a Hindu minor girl to abandon her faith through intimidation and exploitation represents an attack not only on her bodily autonomy but also on her religious identity. The circulation of her objectionable video exposed her to public humiliation, while the blackmail deprived her of any sense of escape. It demonstrated that the victim faced simultaneous threats to her dignity, reputation, and religious identity. Conversion pressure cannot be separated from the chain of events that placed her under unbearable mental stress, after which she committed suicide. 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. Often in such cases, sexual violence 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. This was not random violence; it was systematic, targeted, and rooted in religious animosity. The victim’s subsequent suicide further demonstrated the severe consequences of the coercive and humiliating treatment she experienced. The sexual exploitation, recording and circulation of the objectionable video, blackmail, and pressure to abandon her Hindu faith subjected the minor to sustained fear, humiliation, and psychological distress. These circumstances contributed to the mental trauma that preceded her death by suicide. Her death therefore formed the culmination of a sequence of coercive acts in which both her personal dignity and religious identity were targeted. 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.
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 5 to 10
Perpetrators Gender
both
Sources 
