Minor Hindu girl manipulated into conversion and nikah with Muslim man twice her age in Shahjahanpur, Uttar Pradesh
Shahjahanpur, Uttar Pradesh, India 
6 December, 2025
Case Summary
A minor Hindu girl, a 9th-grade student aged about 16, was about to be converted and married in a Nikah ceremony to a 30-year-old Muslim man in Shahjahanpur. The girl had lost her father earlier, and her mother had been involved in arranging the marriage. The planned marriage was set to take place at a local marriage hall on 7th December 2025, where many guests had gathered. Members of a Hindu organisation reached the venue after learning about the situation and contacted the police. When the police arrived, many attendees dispersed. The police took the girl, her mother, the groom, and the groom’s mother into custody for questioning. They also collected details from the venue’s management and some guests. The police began investigating the circumstances surrounding the attempted marriage and stated that further action would follow based on the findings.
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. Within this, the tertiary category selected is: 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 because a minor Hindu girl was groomed for conversion and nikah with a Muslim man twice her age. The victim's mother, the Muslim man and his mother, all three, were complicit in this manipulation and exploitation of the minor Hindu girl. 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. Disclaimer- While this tracker acknowledges that three individuals have been accused in this case, for documentation purposes, the religion of the perpetrators has been recorded as Muslim since the primary accused and his mother are confirmed to be Muslim. The third accused is the Hindu victim's mother. Given that she was also complicit in the acts of grooming and manipulation of her daughter, the tracker acknowledges her involvement. However, the case is recorded under a single perpetrator religion for consistency in categorisation. This approach ensures clarity in data representation without overlooking the involvement of other accused individuals. Disclaimer: The Hinduphobia Tracker records incidents based on when an event occurred or when the victim's ordeal began. It is important to clarify that none of the media sources covering this case has specified the exact date when the grooming started. Therefore, for documentation purposes, we have recorded the date based on when the nikah was set to occur: 7th December 2025.
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
From 2 To 5
Perpetrators Gender
both
Sources 
