Minor Hindu girl subjected to sexual harassment and pressure to convert to Islam by Muslim man
Jabalpur, Madhya Pradesh, India 
16 September, 2023
Case Summary
In Jabalpur, Madhya Pradesh, a 17-year-old Hindu student was subjected to sexual harassment and pressure to convert to Islam by her Muslim teacher, Syed Faizan Hussain, a teacher at St Aloysius School in Gaur on Mandla Road. According to reports, the Muslim teacher had met the student approximately three years earlier, in 2023, and obtained her phone number during a conversation. He subsequently remained in contact with her through social media and WhatsApp, gradually luring her into a relationship. During this period, he sent her obscene messages and videos, asked her to send objectionable photographs, and lured her with the promise of marriage. He also pressured her to convert to Islam and instructed her to save his mobile number under the name “fiancé”. The student's family became suspicious after she began avoiding domestic worship and Hindu religious rituals, making excuses to avoid following Sanatan traditions. Her family subsequently checked her mobile phone and discovered her conversations with Faizan Hussain along with obscene material. Upon learning of the matter, members of the Hindu Jagran Manch accompanied the student and her family to the police station, where a complaint was submitted against the teacher. Based on the complaint filed by the student's father, Gorabazar police registered an FIR against Syed Faizan Hussain under various provisions of the Bharatiya Nyaya Sanhita, the POCSO Act, the Information Technology Act and the Madhya Pradesh Freedom of Religion Act. Police arrested the accused late on Wednesday night, and he was subsequently produced before a court and sent to Central Jail on court orders. The case remained under investigation to determine the full circumstances of the communications, the pressure exerted on the minor and whether any other persons were involved.
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: 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. The other sub-category selected here is - Forced conversion before marriage. In such cases, a non-Hindu man is in a relationship with a Hindu woman when the pressure to convert her religion begins to manifest. In such cases, typically, two patterns emerge. First, when the relationship is consensual, and the religious identity of the perpetrator is known to the Hindu woman in the relationship, however, at some point during the relationship, the non-Hindu man starts to force the victim to convert her religion and give up her Hindu religious identity. The second is when the woman gets into a marriage with the man pretending to share her faith. Later, when the truth is revealed, the man starts pressuring the woman to convert her religion and give up her religious identity. In both the situations, the methods used to force the victim to convert her religion often revolve around force-feeding beef, forcing her to wear hijab, forcing her to read the Kalma or even pressurizing the victim to do ‘Nikah’, which is marriage under Islamic law, with a prerequisite being conversion to Islam. Cases where a Hindu woman consensually converts to Islam in a relationship will be left out of the hate crime database, even though it could be argued in several cases that the conversion was a result of religious brainwashing. The hate-crime dimension in this case lay in the attempt to alter the religious identity of a Hindu minor through sustained pressure to convert to Islam. The conduct was not confined to inappropriate communication, sexualised harassment or the pursuit of a relationship with the student. The pressure to abandon Hinduism and adopt Islam introduced a specific religious objective into the interaction, making the victim's faith a central element of the harm. The fact that the accused was her teacher further heightened the religious dimension because his position gave him an established relationship of trust and access to a minor whose religious identity he subsequently sought to change. 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, which is why it has been documented here in the hate tracker. Such acts are not merely criminal in nature; they are ideologically charged, revealing religious prejudice and a calculated intent to alter the religious identity of a minor without her volition. . The effort to influence the girl's religious affiliation represented a direct interference with her right to retain her Hindu faith. Conversion from one religion to another is ordinarily a matter of individual conscience and voluntary choice. In this case, however, the circumstances involved pressure rather than an independent decision by the minor. 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. The promise of marriage also acquired a religious significance when considered alongside the pressure to convert. Marriage was presented within a context in which the girl's Hindu identity was expected to give way to Islam. The religious pressure therefore operated together with emotional and relational inducements, creating a pathway through which the minor could be encouraged to abandon her existing faith. The issue was consequently not merely whether the accused sought a personal relationship with the student, but whether that relationship was being used as a means of influencing her religious affiliation. The nature of the communications further demonstrated that the pressure did not arise as an isolated reference to religion. The interaction developed over an extended period and combined personal attention, sexualised communication, requests for intimate material and a promise of marriage with pressure to convert. This combination is significant because it placed the religious objective within a broader pattern of influence over the minor. The conversion pressure was therefore connected to an established process of gaining and maintaining personal influence over her rather than constituting a detached religious discussion. Often in such cases, sexual exploitation 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 teacher-student relationship was particularly significant in understanding the vulnerability involved. A teacher occupies a position of authority and familiarity in relation to a student, and this can create a level of trust that makes inappropriate influence especially consequential when directed towards a minor. The reported conduct involved exploiting an existing relationship with the student while simultaneously introducing pressure concerning her religious identity. This made the religious targeting more serious because the influence was exercised within a relationship in which the adult had an established point of access to the child. Accordingly, the hate-crime dimension in this case lay in the reported attempt to displace the Hindu religious identity of a minor and induce her towards Islam through personal influence, emotional inducement and sustained pressure. 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. Disclaimer: It is important to clarify that none of the media sources covering this case have specified the exact date when the victim's ordeal began, though it is mentioned that she came into contact with the accused in 2023. Thus, to document this case, we have used an indicative date, 17 September 2023, as a placeholder to represent the beginning of her suffering. While media coverage of the incident emerged on 17 September 2026, the Hinduphobia Tracker records the incident based on when the victim’s ordeal began, not when it was reported.
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 
