Minor Hindu girl abducted and raped by Muslim man in Uttar Pradesh

Case ID : 323460c | Location : Mainpuri, Uttar Pradesh, India | Date of Incident : Fri, 12 April, 2024

Case ID : 323460c

Mainpuri, Uttar Pradesh, India

12 April, 2024

Minor Hindu girl abducted and raped by Muslim man in Uttar Pradesh

Undecided cases

Abduction of minor

Case Summary

In Mainpuri, Uttar Pradesh, a 15-year-old Hindu girl was abducted and raped by a Muslim man named Shahenshah Khan, who had been living under the false Hindu identity. The incident took place on 13 April 2024 in the Karhal area of Mainpuri, when the victim and her younger sister were returning home after worshipping in the village temple. During this time, the accused, who was working as a labourer under the false Hindu identity of Rajkumar, approached the duo in a car and forcibly abducted the victim. Upon receiving information, the victim’s father immediately filed a complaint with the police, prompting immediate action by the police. The victim was later recovered from the grain market in Kasganj district, Uttar Pradesh, though the accused managed to escape. The victim recounted that the accused took her to multiple locations, including Karhal, Hathras, Mathura, and Noida, where he raped her multiple times. He also took her to Kasganj on a bike, where he again raped her by drugging her. During the investigation, police uncovered that the accused’s true name was Shahenshah Khan, son of Nizamuddin, a resident of Sahajan in Kasganj district. He had been posing as a Hindu named Rajkumar while working in the area, while in reality he was a Muslim. Subsequently, the accused was arrested by the police. The evidence presented by the prosecution, supported by witness statements and the victim’s testimony, conclusively established the sequence of abduction, deception, and sexual assault. The accused was convicted under the POCSO Act for abducting and raping a 15-year-old Hindu girl. The Special Judge, Jitendra Mishra, sentenced him to twenty years of rigorous imprisonment and imposed a fine of ₹25,000, which was ordered to be paid in full to the victim.

Why it is Hate Crime ?

In this case, a Hindu minor girl was abducted by a Muslim man who posed as a Hindu. After abducting her, he took her to different cities where he raped her multiple times. This could potentially be a crime motivated by religious profiling, as it has been observed that in many cases, Muslim perpetrators target Hindu minor girls due to inherent animosity towards Hindus and their faith. Hindu girls are very vulnerable to crimes like rape and sexual assault at the hands of Muslim men. Furthermore, the accused also pretended to be a Hindu, which is not an isolated incident but part of a broader pattern of religiously motivated hate crimes. The Hinduphobia tracker has documented multiple cases where non-Hindu men pretended to be Hindu to befriend Hindu women for sexual exploitation or religious conversion. For example, in Bahadarabad, Haridwar district, Uttarakhand, a Hindu woman was blackmailed and raped by a Muslim man named Iqbal, who had faked a Hindu identity to entrap her. However, it is also possible that the crime was one of opportunity, where the Hindu girl was simply accessible to the Muslim perpetrator. Since the victim was going home with her younger sister and was not accompanied by an adult, it is equally possible that the accused abducted her, taking advantage of the situation. Additionally, it was also not stated whether the accused used his fake Hindu identity to initiate a conversation or a relationship, or if he lured the minor girl using his fake Hindu identity. Nevertheless, this remains highly speculative, as the case details provide no clear indication of religious motivations. Furthermore, neither the victim nor her father made any statements suggesting a religious motive behind the crime. For this reason, the case has been added to the 'Undecided' database. If further information emerges that points towards a religious motivation behind this crime, it would then be reclassified and included in the hate crime database. Disclaimer: The Hinduphobia Tracker records incidents based on when an event occurred or when the victim's ordeal began. Therefore, the date of the incident has been recorded as 13 April 2024 - the date on which she was abducted.