Hindu minor girl held captive, raped and pressured to convert to Islam by Muslim youth; victim's family threatened with death unless they converted
Baghpat, Uttar Pradesh, India 
11 November, 2024
Case Summary
A 16-year-old Hindu girl was lured, blackmailed, and raped by a Muslim man named Asif alias Sabir. Furthermore, she was abducted and pressured to convert to Islam. According to the girl's family, she had come into contact with a Muslim youth named Sabir, a resident of Purana Hamida Nagar in Yamunanagar, Haryana, through Instagram. The Muslim youth, who was staying with relatives in Kandhla town, had established contact with the girl while she was commuting to school in Baraut, Baghpat district. The girl's family stated that Sabir had lured her into a relationship and that, approximately two years earlier, in 2024, he had raped her and recorded an obscene video. He subsequently used the video to blackmail her and continued to exploit her. A few days before the matter came to light, Sabir had taken the girl away from her home. According to the family, she had also taken lakhs of rupees in cash and gold and silver jewellery from the house when she left. The victim's widowed mother stated that Sabir had threatened her and demanded that she convert to Islam along with her other children, warning that they would otherwise be killed. The Hindu family further maintained that the girl was being held captive and was being pressured to convert to Islam. The mother's distress intensified after she approached the police, as she stated that her complaint had not been properly received and that her statement had not even been recorded. On 12 November 2026, the girl's mother reached the Baghra Ashram in Muzaffarnagar district and met Swami Yashveer Maharaj, narrating the circumstances surrounding her daughter's disappearance and seeking assistance for her recovery. During the visit, she expressed her anguish and demanded that the authorities recover her daughter and take action against those responsible. She also threatened to commit suicide along with her other children if no action was taken. A video of the incident subsequently circulated on social media. After hearing the mother's account, Swami Yashveer Maharaj released a video addressing Uttar Pradesh Chief Minister Yogi Adityanath, demanding immediate intervention and justice for the family. He called for the girl's safe recovery, protection for her widowed mother and her other children, and stringent legal action against those involved in the kidnapping, sexual exploitation, blackmail and pressure to convert. He also called for an investigation into the police's initial inaction. Maharaj issued an ultimatum to the accused youth's family to return the girl within a week, warning that a large-scale protest would be organised by gheraoing the accused's residence in Kandhla if she was not returned. He also announced that a Hindu Panchayat would be organised at the accused's residence in Yamunanagar. Following the public intervention and the circulation of the video, Kairana police registered a case late on 12 November 2026 against five people. The main accused, Sabir, was named alongside his father Tayyab, mother Shabina and brother Anas, all residents of Purana Hamida Nagar in Yamunanagar, Haryana, as well as his maternal uncle Zakir, a resident of Bibipur Buria in Yamunanagar. The case was registered under Section 137(2) of the Bharatiya Nyaya Sanhita and Sections 3 and 5(1) of the Uttar Pradesh Prohibition of Unlawful Conversion of Religion Act, 2021. Kairana police station in-charge Inspector Satish Kumar confirmed that a case had been registered and that further proceedings were underway. Police also stated that they were searching for the accused.
Why it is Hate Crime ?
This case is being added to the tracker under the primary category: Predatory Proselytisation. The subcategory selected is: Proselytisation by grooming, brainwashing, manipulation or subtle indoctrination. The tertiary categories selected are: Conversion of minor, Rape and sexual assault/harassment, and Family claims grooming. 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 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 second primary category selected is: Crimes against women in relationships or other sexual crimes. The subcategory selected is: Brainwashed and/or Groomed. The tertiary categories selected are: Rape and sexual assault/harassment, Conversion of minor, and Family claims grooming. 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 case demonstrated elements of targeted religious exploitation, in which a minor Hindu girl was subjected to sexual abuse, blackmail and pressure to convert to Islam. The religious dimension of the incident extended beyond the accused's relationship with the victim, as he also pressured the minor girl and her family to convert to Islam. The demand for conversion was accompanied by a threat to kill the family if they refused to comply. This linkage between religious conversion and threats of violence was particularly significant in establishing the communal dimension of the offence. Firstly, 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. 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 use of grooming, where trust is built only to exploit, is an insidious method that exploits the child’s naivety and dependence. In this context, the testimony of the family, especially that of a close relative like the victim's mother, holds considerable weight. 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. Secondly, the conduct also reflected the use of sexual exploitation and blackmail as means of exercising control over a Hindu minor. The accused had raped the girl and recorded an obscene video, which was subsequently used to blackmail her and continue exploiting her. He had also abducted her from her home and held her captive while pressuring her to convert to Islam. These acts point towards a pattern of coercion, intimidation and control rather than a relationship based on free consent. These exploitations were not random acts of crime; rather, they functioned as religiously motivated tools aimed at humiliating and dominating a Hindu girl because of her faith. The target was not the victim as an individual, but her Hindu identity. Often in such cases, sexual violence or threats serve 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 Thirdly, 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. Fourth, the threats against the mother and her family demonstrated that the religious targeting extended beyond the minor girl to the entire Hindu household. The accused threatened to kill the widowed mother and her other children unless they converted to Islam. This was significant because the threat was not merely an attempt to intimidate the family into silence or prevent them from pursuing the girl's recovery; it was explicitly linked to their refusal to abandon Hinduism. By making their safety conditional upon accepting Islam, the accused sought to use the fear of death as an instrument of religious coercion. The ultimatum effectively placed the family in a position where retaining their faith meant facing the threat of lethal violence, while conversion was presented as the condition for their safety. This constitutes a particularly serious form of religious coercion, as it seeks to deprive individuals of their freedom to retain their faith through intimidation and threats against their lives. Such acts are carried out by Muslim perpetrators due to indoctrination by Islamic theology, which advocates that all non-Muslims (referred to as kafirs) are inferior and subject to subjugation unless they convert to Islam or live under Islamic rule (dhimmitude). These ideas are not mere abstractions; they manifest in actions where non-Muslims, especially Hindus in India, are seen as targets for religious domination, coercion, or humiliation. This theological framework fosters an "us versus them" mindset, in which any assertion of Hindu identity or religious freedom is seen not only as undesirable but as a threat to Islamic supremacy. As a result, perpetrators who are shaped by such teachings feel justified, even morally obligated, to harass, suppress, or pressure Hindus in an effort to convert to Islam. As a result, Muslim perpetrators invoke such doctrines to justify coercive attempts to convert non-Muslims, particularly Hindus, portraying conversion as a means of abandoning Kufr (a state of disbelief in Islam or disbelief in Islam) and attaining salvation. Such acts, therefore, are not isolated but driven by a broader ideological hostility towards Hindus as non-believers and reflect an attempt to impose religious dominance. 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: The Hinduphobia Tracker records the date of the incident based on when the crime occurred. The media reports published this case on 12 November 2026. However, the media reports do not specify the exact date of the beginning of the victim’s ordeal. The victim came in contact with the accused in 2024, and on 12 November 2026, an FIR was filed against the accused. Considering these two pieces of information, we are using an indicative date of 12 November 2024 as the date of the incident. This date is used for documentation purposes only and represents the estimated beginning of her ordeal. Disclaimer: Although the case was registered at Kairana Police Station in Shamli district, the place of the incident has been recorded as Baraut, Baghpat district, Uttar Pradesh, since the victim reportedly came into contact with the accused while commuting to school there. The location has therefore been selected on the basis of where the initial contact between the victim and the accused took place, rather than the location where the FIR was registered.
Victim Details
Total Victim
4
Deceased
0
Gender
- Male 0
- Female 2
- Third Gender 0
- Unknown 2
Caste
- SC/ST 0
- OBC 0
- General 0
- Unknown 4
Age Group
- Minor 1
- Adult 1
- Senior Citizen 0
- Unknown 2
Case Status
Complaint registered
Perpetrators Details
Perpetrators
Muslim Extremists
Perpetrators Range
From 2 To 5
Perpetrators Gender
both
Sources 
