Hindu girl abducted and pressured to convert to Islam by Muslim men in Sultanpur, Uttar Pradesh
Sultanpur, Uttar Pradesh, India 
15 August, 2026
Case Summary
In Sultanpur, Uttar Pradesh, a Hindu girl was abducted by two Muslim men, Ghulam Rasool and Irfan. The accused lured her and took her away from outside her home and pressured her to convert to Islam. Notably, at the time of writing this report, the Hinduphobia Tracker team contacted the local police and confirmed that the victim was Hindu. The police also stated that the investigation was ongoing. On 16 August 2026, the girl's father approached Lambhua Police Station and submitted a written complaint regarding her disappearance. Based on the complaint, police registered a case against Ghulam Rasool, son of Islamuddin, and Irfan, son of Mushtaq Ali. Both accused were residents of Barua Jagdishpur under Kotwali Dehat police station in Sultanpur. During the investigation, police safely recovered the girl. The investigation also led to the addition of Sections 3 and 5(1) of the Uttar Pradesh Prohibition of Unlawful Conversion of Religion (Amendment) Act, 2024, to the case. On 18 August 2026, police arrested the two wanted accused, Ghulam Rasool and Irfan, at around 9:24 p.m. They were apprehended near a canal culvert on the road, approximately 100 metres before Bhataulia forest. The police action was carried out on the directions of Sultanpur Superintendent of Police Charu Nigam and under the supervision of Additional Superintendent of Police Brij Narayan Singh and the Circle Officer of Lambhua. A police team led by Lambhua Station House Officer Dheeraj Kumar carried out the arrests. Further legal proceedings against the accused were initiated.
Why it is Hate Crime ?
This incident has been added to the database under the primary category: Predatory Proselytisation. Within this, the selected subcategory 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 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 constitutes a religiously motivated hate crime because the victim was a Hindu girl who was abducted and subjected to pressure to abandon Hinduism and convert to Islam by Muslim men. The most significant religious marker in this case is that the Hindu victim was abducted and pressured to convert to Islam. Forcibly making an individual abandon their religion violates their religious autonomy and fundamental right to freedom of belief and conscience. It denies the victim the freedom to retain and practise their faith and treats their existing religious identity as something that must be discarded and replaced. In this case, the attempt to strip the victim of her Hindu identity and convert her to Islam demonstrates deep-seated animosity and disdain towards Hinduism. It reflects a mindset in which the victim's Hindu faith was not regarded as worthy of respect and preservation, but as an identity to be forcibly removed. Religious conversion loses its character as an exercise of individual faith when it does not arise from free and voluntary conviction but is instead driven by external pressure, force, deception, coercion, or the exploitation of vulnerability. When such methods are used to make a Hindu person abandon Hinduism, the act becomes a religiously motivated assault on that person's faith and identity. The objective is not merely to influence an individual's beliefs but to sever their connection with Hinduism and replace it with another religious identity. This makes the act a clear example of a religiously driven hate crime rooted in hostility towards the victim's Hindu faith and religious identity. The manner in which the victim was targeted further demonstrates the predatory nature of the offence. She was taken away from outside her home, separating her from her immediate family, familiar surroundings, and support system. Removing her from this environment increased her vulnerability and placed her in a situation where she faced greater pressure to submit to the demands of those who had taken her away. Her separation from her family also disrupted her immediate connection with the Hindu household and community that formed an important part of her social and religious environment. The combination of abduction, isolation, and pressure to convert formed a pattern in which the victim was first removed from the security of her home and family and then subjected to efforts aimed at severing her connection with Hinduism. Overall, since this case meets the parameters of a hate-driven offence, it is being added to the hate crime database of the Hinduphobia Tracker. Disclaimer: The Hinduphobia Tracker records incidents based on the date when the event occurred or when the victim's ordeal began. In this case, none of the media reports covering the incident specified the exact date of occurrence. The earliest date mentioned is 16 August 2026, when the victim's father filed a complaint with the police. Therefore, 16 August 2026 has been selected as the indicative incident date for documentation purposes.
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 0
- Adult 0
- Senior Citizen 0
- Unknown 1
Case Status
Arrested
Perpetrators Details
Perpetrators
Muslim Extremists
Perpetrators Range
From 2 To 5
Perpetrators Gender
male
Sources 
