Minor Hindu girl befriended, lured through fake Hindu identity, abducted and pressured to convert to Islam by Muslim man
Palghar, Maharashtra, India 
12 September, 2026
Case Summary
In Vasai-Virar, Maharashtra, a 14-year-old Hindu girl from Anand Nagar was abducted after being lured through a fake Hindu identity by a 25-year-old Muslim man, Sultan Sheikh. Sheikh took the minor to Surat, Gujarat, where she was taken to a local mosque and an amulet was tied to her hand. He then planned to take her to Ajmer, Rajasthan, for a religious-conversion process. Sheikh first met the girl in a local garden in Vasai-Virar. He befriended her under a fake Hindu identity by displaying a kalava on his hand, gaining her trust before later revealing his true identity. He then began blackmailing and threatening her, intimidating her into complying with him and warning that he would harm or kill her father if she refused. Fearing repercussions against her family, the girl initially kept the harassment secret. The threats and intimidation placed her under severe psychological stress and affected her studies. On 8 September 2026, Sheikh took the girl from Vasai to Surat, Gujarat. After reaching Surat, he took her to a local mosque, where he tied an amulet to her hand. Sheikh then intended to take her onwards to Ajmer, Rajasthan, where the forcible religious-conversion process was to take place. Reports also stated that the minor could have been sold or trafficked. The journey was interrupted after Sheikh ran out of money and went to a mobile-phone shop in Surat to sell his phone. The shopkeeper became suspicious and alerted Bajrang Dal activists, who intercepted Sheikh and secured the girl before informing the police. Local police and the Crime Branch intervened and brought the minor safely back to Vasai. Sheikh was taken into custody and produced before a judge for further custody proceedings. Police subsequently investigated the circumstances of the abduction, the interstate movement of the minor and her abduction from Surat to Ajmer. During the incident, police also found Sheikh wearing kalava (sacred Hindu thread) around his wrist. Hindu activists described the threads as part of an attempt to conceal his identity and compared the use of Hindu religious markers with references to Ajmal Kasab and the 2008 Mumbai attacks. After the girl's return, her family described the psychological trauma she had suffered. After Sheikh's detention, 10 to 15 unidentified young men and two advocates appeared in his support. Representatives of Hindu organisations questioned their presence and called for their backgrounds and any possible connections with Sheikh to be investigated. Jana ji, a representative of Hindu organisations, described the incident as a case of “love jihad” and the existence of forced religious-conversion syndicates operating across Maharashtra, Gujarat and Rajasthan, including Ajmer. Hindu organisation members urged the Police Inspector, Commissioner of Police and Deputy Commissioner of Police to conduct a comprehensive investigation spanning the three states. The organisations also demanded scrutiny of Sheikh's associates, the unidentified young men and the two advocates who appeared after his detention. They sought background checks and an investigation into any wider network connected with the case. They further urged authorities to examine concerns about groups targeting Hindu minors in public places, including gardens and ponds, across Vasai-Virar.
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- Proselytisation by grooming, brainwashing, manipulation or subtle indoctrination. Under this, the tertiary category selected is: Conversion of a minor. 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. The other 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 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. The other primary category selected in the case is: Crime against women in relationships and other sexual crimes. The sub-category selected is: Man pretends to be Hindu. The tertiary category selected is: Wears symbols of Hinduism. When a non-Hindu man pretends to be a Hindu to deceive a Hindu woman into a relationship, the act is seen as triggered by malafide intentions. In some cases, the woman eventually accepts the man’s original religious identity and converts after the man’s identity is revealed. These cases could be argued as cases of religious brainwashing and a result of the pressure a woman feels after getting into a relationship with a man. The woman, it can be argued, also changed her religious identity because of the stigma she believes she might face if she chooses to walk out of a deceptive relationship. However, for the purpose of documenting hate crimes, the cases in this subcategory are limited to those where there is explicit violence aimed at religious conversion against the wishes of the victim (force-feeding beef, blackmailing with intimate videos, rape on refusal to convert, etc.), or if the woman herself complains of the man’s religious deception. In such cases, it is established that the deception of the non-Hindu man had a specific aim of religious conversion or targeting of the victim due to her Hindu religious identity, therefore making it a religiously motivated hate crime. The other sub-category selected is: Brainwashed and/or Groomed. The tertiary category selected is: Conversion of a minor In our database, we have not added incidents where women have converted to another religion of their free will and no allegations of forced/involuntary conversion have been made. However, there are certain cases of conversion where the consent itself is a result of the brainwashing or grooming of a minor by the non-Hindu perpetrator trying to victimise a woman for her Hindu religious identity. The phenomenon of grooming points to non-Hindu perpetrators identifying their Hindu victims’ vulnerabilities and exploiting them over months and sometimes years, to extract the supposed ‘consent’ in order to convert their religion. In most cases of grooming, the victims are minors or the grooming started when the victim was a minor. In other cases of grooming, the non-Hindu perpetrator brainwashes and grooms a minor victim to extract their trust and then proceeds to rape them repeatedly with the intent of converting them to their faith. It is pertinent to understand here that when the victim is a minor, the ‘consent’ to convert or enter into a romantic relationship with an adult itself is redundant – addressed by POCSO. While every case of conversion of a minor and incidents of establishing a physical relationship with a minor by an adult is a crime, for the purpose of this database, a case would be considered a hate crime only if there is a distinct religious angle to the grooming. For example, in the UK, if a Hindu minor is targeted by Pakistani grooming gangs, it would be considered a hate crime because the victims are specifically targeted owing to their non-Muslim religious identity with the perpetrators being Muslim. In other cases, if a Hindu minor is brainwashed into entering a physical relationship with the non-Hindu adult perpetrator and the family alleges grooming/brainwashing of the minor to convert her religion, it would form a part of this database. If the victim is a Hindu adult, the case would form a part of this database only if the victim herself says that she was brainwashed/groomed to convert her religion. However, if the victim is deceased (murdered or otherwise), the case would form a part of this database if her family/friends provided testimony that the victim was brainwashed/groomed to convert her religion. Since these crimes have a distinct religious angle where the victim is being targeted owing to her Hindu religious identity, these cases are considered a hate crime. This case was included in the Hinduphobia Tracker because the minor Hindu victim was specifically targeted through a fake Hindu identity, with Sultan Sheikh displaying kalava to conceal his religious identity and gain her trust. She was subsequently subjected to harassment, intimidation, threats and coercion, followed by pressure to abandon her Hindu faith and convert to Islam. The religious component was further reflected in taking her to a mosque, tying an amulet to her hand and planning to take her to Ajmer for the conversion process. These acts constituted an attempt to sever the minor's connection with her Hindu identity through deception, coercion and religious pressure, distinguishing the incident from a conventional abduction. At the centre of the incident was the targeting of a minor Hindu girl for conversion to Islam. The conduct went beyond abducting the minor from her home and family and involved an effort to change her religious identity. Her Hindu faith was a defining part of her background, and the attempt to make her abandon it and adopt Islam took place while she was under intimidation and coercion. As a child, she was particularly vulnerable to such pressure. Being a minor 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. The way the girl was approached also carried a distinct religious dimension. Sultan Sheikh presented himself as Hindu and used a Hindu religious symbol, kalava, to gain her trust before revealing his identity. Kalava is a recognisable Hindu religious symbol associated with religious observances, blessings and Hindu identity. In this incident, its significance arose from its use as an outward indication of Hindu identity while Sheikh approached the Hindu minor. The deception therefore exploited the girl's familiarity and trust within her Hindu social and religious environment and turned her own religious identity into a means of gaining access to her. This was particularly offensive because symbols associated with Hindu faith and identity were used deceptively to approach a Hindu minor and establish a relationship under false religious pretences. The Hindu identity that was initially used to gain her confidence was then followed by harassment, threats and coercion and an effort to separate her from her Hindu faith and move her towards Islam. This made the misuse of Hindu religious identity more than a personal deception: it directly exploited the victim's Hindu faith and the trust attached to belonging to her own religious community. The victim was shifted into an Islamic religious setting, marking another clear religious shift. After being taken to Surat, she was taken to a local mosque, where an amulet was tied to her hand. This marked a further step away from the girl's Hindu religious identity and towards Islam. The significance lay in the fact that a Hindu minor who had been separated from her family and placed under coercive pressure was then subjected to practices associated with another faith as part of the process of changing her religion. Her Hindu identity was not merely being disregarded; it was being actively displaced while Islamic religious practices were being introduced in its place. The use of the mosque and amulet within this sequence therefore represented a direct religious intrusion into the life of a Hindu child and formed part of the broader effort to sever her connection with her Hindu faith and assimilate her into another religion. The threats against the girl's father added a coercive element to the religious targeting. Sheikh threatened to harm or kill her father if she refused to comply, causing the girl to conceal the harassment out of fear for her family's safety. The pressure to change her religious identity therefore took place alongside intimidation and psychological control rather than in circumstances of free and independent choice. Her subsequent psychological distress and the impact on her studies reflected the personal consequences of this treatment. The incident involved a sustained effort to exploit, undermine and replace the religious identity of a Hindu minor through deception, the misuse of Hindu religious symbols, coercion and pressure to convert to Islam. The progression from assuming a Hindu identity to gain her trust to taking her to a mosque, placing an Islamic amulet on her and arranging her onward movement for conversion demonstrated that her Hindu identity was central to the conduct. The targeting of a Hindu minor for religious assimilation, particularly through threats and coercive circumstances, represented hostility towards her Hindu identity. Accordingly, this case has been documented in the Hinduphobia Tracker's Hate Crime Database as an instance of religiously motivated hostility directed against Hinduism and the religious identity of the Hindu community. Disclaimer: The Hinduphobia Tracker records incidents based on when an event occurred or when the victim's ordeal began. None of the media sources covering this case has specified the exact date the incident occurred. Therefore, for documentation purposes, we recorded the date as when the incident was reported in the media: 13 September 2026.
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 
