Hindu woman lured with fake government scheme: Raped and pressured to convert to Islam by Muslim Youth
Bareilly, Uttar Pradesh, India 
1 June, 2025
Case Summary
In Bareilly district of Uttar Pradesh, a Hindu woman was deceived, raped and coerced for religious conversion by a Muslim man named Mohammad Arif. A Muslim man named Mohammad Arif, also known as Mohammad Ahmed, lured her by falsely claiming that she would be receiving ₹54,000 under a government scheme meant for families with two children. The accused approached the Hindu girl and upon gaining her trust, Arif took her to Bareilly where he raped her. He then pressured her to convert to Islam. The girl reported the incident to the police, following which a case was registered against Arif. As of the date of writing this report, the accused was arrested by the police and has been sent to judicial custody. The investigation was ongoing, and efforts were underway to determine whether the case is connected to a larger religious conversion network.
Why it is Hate Crime ?
This case has been added to the tracker under the primary category of: - Predatory proselytisation. With it, the sub-category selected is: - Proselytisation by grooming, brainwashing, manipulation or subtle indoctrination, with the tertiary category being: - Rape and sexual assault/harassment. 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. The other sub-category relevant here 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. This case has been added to the tracker because a Hindu girl was deceived by a Muslim man for the purpose of religious conversion and sexual exploitation. He exploited her trust by falsely claiming that he would get her benefits under a government scheme and lured her to Bareilly. He then raped her and pressured her to convert to Islam. This shows that he was never interested in genuinely helping the woman; instead, his only goal was to strip the Hindu victim of her religious identity and sexually exploit her.. This is not an isolated incident but part of a broader pattern where Hindu women are deliberately targeted for their religious identity, either for sexual exploitation or religious conversion. In such cases, trust is systematically weaponised, through grooming, subtle indoctrination, or promises of material benefit, to erode the victim’s connection to her faith and push her towards conversion. This stems from inherent hostility towards the victim's professed faith since Abrahamic faiths believe that any non-adherent to the faith is subject to being dehumanised till they convert. Since such predatory actions stem from doctrinal animosity towards the Hindu faith and its adherents, this case is being documented as a religiously motivated hate crime.
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 0
- Adult 1
- Senior Citizen 0
- Unknown 0
Case Status
Arrested
Perpetrators Details
Perpetrators
Muslim Extremists
Perpetrators Range
One Person
Perpetrators Gender
male
Sources 
