Minor Hindu school student harassed and threatened to convert to Islam by Muslim man in Hapur, Uttar Pradesh
Hapur, Uttar Pradesh, India 
9 September, 2026
Case Summary
In Hapur, Uttar Pradesh, a twelve-year-old minor Hindu girl was stalked, harassed and pressured to convert to Islam by a Muslim man while she was walking to school. The accused held her hand, made obscene gestures, and threatened to kill her if she disclosed the incident to anyone. Notably, the Hinduphobia Tracker team contacted the Station House Officer of Simbhawali police station, who confirmed that the minor was a Hindu girl. As per the sources, the victim was a Class 7 student at a school in Ratupura village. Her father, a resident of a village under the jurisdiction of Simbhawali police station, submitted a written complaint to the police on 12 September 2026, seeking action against the accused. The accused, a Muslim man from a neighbouring village, had been harassing the victim on her way to school for two days, beginning on 10 September 2026. As per the complaint, the accused stalked and pressured the victim to convert to Islam. As per the complaint, the victim told her family that the accused had held her hand and behaved obscenely towards her. She further stated that he threatened to kill her if she complained to anyone or informed her family. Further, on 12 September 2026, when the victim’s father accompanied her to school, they encountered the accused on the way. As soon as he saw the girl’s father, the accused fled from the scene. The father also stated that a complaint had previously been registered against the accused at the police station. The Station House Officer of Simbhawali police station confirmed that the police had received a complaint regarding the harassment of the minor girl. He stated that the matter was under investigation and that necessary action would be taken on the basis of the complaint. The incident triggered anger among Hindu organisations. Bajrang Dal workers, led by district convenor Rahul Bajrangi, reached the police station and demanded strict action against the accused. They warned that they would stage a protest outside the police station if the accused was not arrested by 5 pm on Saturday, 12 September 2026.
Why it is Hate Crime ?
This case has been added to the tracker under the primary category: Predatory Proselytisation. Within this, the subcategory 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 rights 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 added to the Hinduphobia Tracker because it was not simply a case of harassment. The accused made the victim’s religious identity central to the incident by threatening to convert her to Islam. This gave the incident a direct religious implication, as the accused targeted not only her safety but also her Hindu identity and freedom of conscience. The accused used the threat of conversion as a means of intimidation and control. By threatening to change her religion, he sought to pressure the victim to abandon the faith in which she had been raised. Further, the accused attempted to lure the girl and made obscene gestures towards her. In this context, his attempt to lure her was significant because it showed that he sought to draw a vulnerable Hindu girl into a situation where he could exercise greater influence over her. The religious threat therefore formed part of his broader attempt to manipulate and control her. Because the victim was only a 12-year-old minor at the time of the incident, her age was central to the seriousness of the conduct. The accused targeted a child who was particularly vulnerable to lures, manipulation and pressure from adults. At such a young age, she did not have the maturity to recognise the intentions behind such conduct or understand the long-term implications of changing her religion under pressure. Her ability to assess such situations rationally and make fully informed decisions was also still developing. By targeting a young Hindu child with both lurement and pressure to convert, the accused therefore raised serious concerns about her autonomy, freedom of conscience and protection from religious exploitation. Moreover, this was not the first complaint against the accused. A complaint had been filed against him earlier as well. The recurrence of such conduct was significant because the accused had engaged in similar conduct before, making it less likely that this was an isolated occurrence or a momentary act. When the same form of targeting was repeated, it indicated a continuing intent and raised the concern that the accused had acted deliberately rather than accidentally. In this context, the earlier complaint strengthened the concern that the accused had deliberately attempted to place a Hindu minor under pressure for conversion as part of a continuing pattern of conduct. Finally, the seriousness of the incident lay in the combination of lurement, obscene gestures, threats of physical harm and the threat of religious conversion against a Hindu child. The accused exploited her young age and vulnerability to exert pressure on her, while also placing her Hindu identity under threat. The religious element was therefore central to the intimidation and warranted the case’s inclusion in the Hinduphobia Tracker. Disclaimer: The Hinduphobia Tracker records the incident based on when the victim's ordeal began, rather than when it was reported. Thus, 10 September 2026, when the accused started harassing the minor victim, was recorded as the date of the incident.
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
Complaint filed
Perpetrators Details
Perpetrators
Muslim Extremists
Perpetrators Range
One Person
Perpetrators Gender
male
Sources 
