Minor Hindu girl groomed by Muslim man, lured to elope
Damoh, Madhya Pradesh, India 
8 December, 2024
Case Summary
An incident in Madhya Pradesh took place in the rural police station area of Damoh district. Shahbaz trapped a minor Hindu girl in a love affair and promised her marriage. The two continued to communicate and meet. Around a month ago, Shahbaz allegedly coaxed the girl to accompany him to Delhi. Her family filed a missing person’s report with the police. Later, the family discovered that Shahbaz was also missing from his home. They contacted Hindu organisations and sought their help. The Hindu organisations approached the police and demanded action on the matter. The police traced the girl’s location to Delhi. On 8th December, the minor girl was recovered from Delhi. However, Shahbaz managed to escape. During questioning, the girl revealed that two other individuals were also involved in taking her away. The suspects were absconding at the time this report was documented.
Why it is Hate Crime ?
This case has been added to the primary category 'Crimes against women in relationship and other sexual crimes' under the sub-category 'Brainwahed and/or groomed'. 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. In this case, the victim was a minor, which means the element of consent 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 or eloping. The Muslim perpetrator purposely targeted and exploited this vulnerability of the victim. It is also true that the victim, being a minor, had little understanding that a relationship with the perpetrator could entail religious conversion and the implications of such conversion. Further, akin to cases of grooming gangs in the UK, in this case too, there were 3 Muslim perpetrators involved in the manipulation of the minor. This points to the fact that there was a concerted effort to brainwash the child, as admitted by the child herself, and that the child was specifically targeted for her identity.
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
Perpetrators not caught
Perpetrators Details
Perpetrators
Muslim Extremists
Perpetrators Range
From 2 To 5
Perpetrators Gender
male
Sources 
