Minor Hindu girl abducted at gunpoint for forced religious conversion by Muslim man; victim's family also subjected to threats and harassment
Kannauj, Uttar Pradesh, India 
16 December, 2025
Case Summary
In the Chhibramau police station area of Kannauj, Uttar Pradesh, a minor Hindu girl aged 16 was abducted at gunpoint by a Muslim man named Arsan, son of Shakeel, along with his Muslim accomplices, namely Raja, Shadab, Lalla, and Jaseem. The accused, Arsan, pressured the victim to convert to Islam and marry him. Even the victim's father was abducted and went missing since then, and the rest of her family were issued death threats. According to media reports, on 17th December 2025, the victim Hindu girl, was abducted from her home by the Muslim accused. The victim's family stated that the youth threatened to marry her and forcibly convert her to Islam. The family was also warned over the phone of dire consequences if they approached the police. The victim girl's brother filed a police complaint against Arsan. The complaint stated that Arsan abducted the girl, and his family wanted to forcibly convert her religion. The victim's family also stated that when they arrived at Arsan's house, his mother also threatened the victim's family. The victim's brother also stated that after abducting his sister, the accused youth's family also abducted his father. Now, neither the sister's nor the father's location was known. The family feared something untoward would happen to both of them, and they were terrified. Following this incident, Hindu organisations surrounded the police station and demanded strict action against the accused, his accomplices and his family.
Why it is Hate Crime ?
This case has been added to the tracker under the primary category- Predatory Proselytisation. The subcategory selected 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 other subcategory selected is- Proselytisation by grooming, brainwashing, manipulation, or subtle indoctrination. 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 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. Another primary category selected is- Attack not resulting in death. The subcategory selected is- Attacked for opposing radicals or trying to save victim. In several cases, Hindus are attacked for opposing religiously motivated crimes being committed against a fellow Hindu or simply for voicing an opinion opposing radical elements, who either have in the past or continue to persecute Hindus. In such cases, the initial attack against the victim, against which the Hindu was trying to defend the victim, would also need to be classified as a religiously motivated hate crime. Since the initial crime itself was religiously motivated and the subsequent crime of attempting to save the victim or speaking against the radical elements ends up inviting a violent attack, it would also be classified as a religiously motivated hate crime under this category. The Hindu victim in this case was a minor girl aged 16, utterly incapable of providing informed consent due to her tender years, which rendered her profoundly vulnerable to manipulation and coercion. Minors possess neither the emotional maturity nor the cognitive depth to grasp the irreversible consequences of abandoning their Hindu faith for another religion, yet the Muslim perpetrator, Arsan, ruthlessly exploited this innocence. He targeted her specifically for kidnapping at gunpoint, forced conversion to Islam, and marriage, stripping her of her Hindu identity through force and coercion. This predatory assault on her vulnerability exemplified a clear instance of religiously motivated anti-Hindu hate crime, where the perpetrator sought to erase her Hindu identity and impose Islam by force. The Hindu victim faced forcible abduction from her home at gunpoint, followed by relentless pressure to convert to Islam and marry Arsan, actions that screamed deep-seated religious animosity towards the Hindu community. Abducting a minor Hindu girl in this manner, then coercing her religious conversion solely for marriage, violated her sacred right to religious autonomy, as the perpetrators aimed to obliterate her Hindu faith through coercion and harassment. The forced marriage served as a final blow, designed to cement an Islamic identity over her and kill her Hindu identity forever, amounting to a religiously motivated hate crime. Beyond the girl herself, her terrified Hindu family endured savage threats and violence for daring to oppose the Muslim perpetrators. The Muslim perpetrators warned them of dire consequences, including murder, if they approached the police; when the family confronted Arsan at his home, even his mother unleashed a barrage of menacing threats. The abduction and disappearance of the victim's father by the accused and his kin further terrorised the household, leaving them in agonising uncertainty. This pattern of intimidation and attack against a Hindu family simply for protecting their minor daughter from forced conversion and marriage underscored a blatant anti-Hindu hate crime, punishing them ruthlessly for safeguarding their faith and loved one. The Muslim perpetrator, Arsan, orchestrated this crime alongside his accomplices, Raja, Shadab, Lalla, and Jaseem, and his own family, revealing a meticulously coordinated, premeditated plot to target the Hindu girl and her family purely for their religious identity. Far from a spontaneous act, this conspiracy involved gunpoint abduction, conversion through coercion, marriage imposition, and familial intimidation, all aimed at subjugating Hindus through fear. Such communal targeting by Muslims cemented this as a religiously motivated hate crime against the Hindu community. Consequently, this case was duly added to the Hinduphobia Tracker's hate crime database, documenting yet another assault on Hindu lives. Disclaimer: In this case, reports confirmed that the Hindu victim's family faced targeted threats, with her father abducted by the perpetrators. Although the reports did not specify the exact number of family members affected, they explicitly identified the minor Hindu girl, her brother and her father as direct victims. For precise documentation in the Hinduphobia Tracker's hate crime database, the victim count was recorded as three (3), referring to the Hindu girl, her father, and her brother.
Victim Details
Total Victim
3
Deceased
0
Gender
- Male 2
- Female 1
- Third Gender 0
- Unknown 0
Caste
- SC/ST 0
- OBC 0
- General 0
- Unknown 3
Age Group
- Minor 1
- Adult 2
- Senior Citizen 0
- Unknown 0
Case Status
Complaint filed
Perpetrators Details
Perpetrators
Muslim Extremists
Perpetrators Range
From 5 to 10
Perpetrators Gender
both
Sources 
