Hindu women, mother of five, seduced and converted to Islam along with minor daughter
Muzaffarnagar, Uttar Pradesh, India 
13 April, 2023
Case Summary
A Hindu woman, mother of five, eloped with a Muslim man, taking her minor daughter along. The case occurred in the Muzaffarnagar district of Uttar Pradesh. The woman’s family stated that a Muslim man from the Nagla Rai village seduced her and ran away with her two and a half years ago. Both the mother and the minor daughter have since been converted to Islam. The victim's family tried to register a complaint at the Charthawal Police station, but no action was taken. Since the case involved coercion and conversion of a minor girl, a Hindu seer, Yashveer Maharaj, took up the cause. He warned that if the woman was not recovered and the accused was not arrested within a week, he would hold an indefinite protest outside the accused's home.
Why it is Hate Crime ?
This case has been added to the tracker under the primary category- Predatory Proselytisation. The sub-category selected is: Proselytisation by grooming, brainwashing, manipulation or subtle indoctrination and the tertiary categories: Family claims grooming, Conversion of 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 the 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 proselytisation, such cases are considered religiously motivated hate crimes. This case has been added to the tracker as a clear instance of religiously motivated coercion and manipulation. If only the Hindu woman had gone missing, the case would have been placed under the 'Undecided' database, since she is an adult with the agency to make personal life choices. In such situations, unless the woman herself comes forward to allege coercion or forced conversion, it is difficult to conclusively establish religious motivation, even though there is considerable precedent where Muslim men have deceived Hindu women into marriage and subsequent conversion. Many such cases have revealed how Hindu women are systematically isolated from their families, emotionally manipulated, and sometimes blackmailed using private photographs or fabricated social obligations to compel conversion. In several documented instances, once the woman converts or marries under coercion, she faces physical and sexual abuse, confinement, or social ostracisation if she resists. The overarching aim in these cases is not genuine affection or companionship but the assertion of religious dominance — using deception and emotional manipulation as tools to convert Hindu women and symbolically weaken Hindu social structures. In this case, however, since the direct testimony of the adult victim is unavailable, it becomes difficult to ascertain the exact degree of coercion or confirm whether the conversion was forced, as her own statement remains crucial to establishing motive and consent. But what distinguishes this case is the explicit mention by the family that the woman’s minor daughter was also converted to Islam. The involvement of a child fundamentally alters the nature of the incident, as it removes the element of consent entirely. Minors, by virtue of their age and psychological immaturity, lack the capacity to make informed decisions about faith, belief, or conversion. They are especially vulnerable to emotional, social, and religious manipulation, and perpetrators often exploit this vulnerability to impose conversion without true understanding or choice. In this case, the conversion of the minor daughter demonstrates that the act was not one of voluntary transformation but of deliberate exploitation. The Muslim perpetrator knowingly manipulated and coerced a vulnerable Hindu family, targeting both the mother and her child to achieve religious conversion. This makes it a blatant act of religious hate, directed at the Hindu community’s women and children, and not a matter of individual choice. For these reasons, the case has been rightfully documented in the Hinduphobia Tracker as a hate crime driven by religious animosity and coercive proselytisation. Disclaimer: It is important to clarify that the media sources covering this case haven't specified the exact date when the illicit relationship began or when the conversion happened. It is stated by the victim's family that the woman eloped two and a half years ago. Since Hinduphobia Tracker records the incident based on when the victim’s ordeal began and not when it was reported, we have considered the date of the incident as Apr 14, 2023, two and a half years before the date of reporting. Further, the victim count has been recorded as 1- the minor daughter — since the element of consent is automatically invalid in her case. If, in the future, the woman herself comes forward and speaks of coercion or forced conversion, the count will be updated accordingly to reflect both victims.
Victim Details
Total Victim
1
Deceased
0
Gender
- Male 0
- Female 1
- Third Gender 0
- Unknown 0
Caste
- SC/ST 0
- OBC 0
- General 1
- Unknown 0
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 
