Minor Dalit Hindu girl lured, raped and pressured for religious conversion by Muslim man
Pratapgarh, Uttar Pradesh, India 
22 May, 2025
Case Summary
In Pratapgarh district, Uttar Pradesh, a 16-year-old Dalit Hindu girl was lured and abducted by a Muslim man, named Mohammad Sharif, and taken to Delhi under false pretences. He then raped her and tried to forcibly convert her to Islam. The incident occurred on May 23, when the Muslim youth, a resident of Dilerganj, called the minor Hindu girl and lured her out of her village to Manikpur railway station, on the pretext of a bike ride. He then coerced her into boarding a train, during which some of his friends sat beside her. When the girl resisted, he threatened to throw her off the train. The Muslim youth took her to Delhi to a friend's house. He raped the minor girl on the false pretence of marriage and also tried to convert her to Islam. During this period, a Maulvi was brought in order to convert the girl. Somehow, the girl managed to contact a woman from her village who resides in Delhi. With her help, she escaped captivity and informed her family. The victim’s brother travelled to Delhi and brought her back home. After which, the girl narrated the ordeal to her family, who then approached the police. As of the date of writing this report, a complaint was registered by the police, and the investigation was ongoing.
Why it is Hate Crime ?
This case has been added to the tracker under the primary category of: - Predatory proselytisation. Within it, the sub-category selected is: - Proselytisation by grooming, brainwashing, manipulation or subtle indoctrination, with the tertiary category being: - Conversion of minor and 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 minor Dalit Hindu girl was lured and trapped by a Muslim youth named Mohammad Sharif for sexual exploitation and religious conversion. He lured her from her village under the false pretext of a bike ride and deceitfully brought her to the Manikpur railway station. There, he coerced her into boarding a train and threatened to throw her off when she resisted, thereby proving his malicious and criminal intent. Once in Delhi, he took her to his friend's house where he raped her on false pretence of marriage and pressured her to convert to Islam. Furthermore, he also brought in a maulvi to compel her to convert. These false promise of marriage, rape and Maulvi were used as a pressure tactic to manipulate the minor girl into abandoning her faith. It is also important to mention that since the victim, in this case, is a minor, there was an absence of both consent and a genuine change of conscience. It is a well-established fact that children are more susceptible to manipulation since they are still developing emotionally, cognitively, and socially. Their brains are not fully mature, making them more vulnerable to influence and less capable of critically evaluating information. Moreover, subtle manipulation tactics can be difficult to detect, making it challenging for parents to identify and address instances of religious manipulation. Consequently, cases involving religious manipulation of minors not only represent an infringement on an individual's religious freedom but also demonstrate a calculated strategy of targeting those who are less able to resist or understand the long-term implications of conversion, making it a significant case of religious-motivated hate crime. To sum it up, the Hindu minor girl was abducted and kept in confinement. This itself is a severe form of intimidation. Then she was put through unfathomable physical torture by her perpetrator. The purpose behind the violence employed was to coerce the victim to abandon her faith and accept Islam. The underlying motivation of predatory proselytisation itself is animosity towards the professed faith of the victim. In this case, there was violence involved in the pressure exerted to forcefully convert the Hindu girl. Further, the central aim of the perpetrators was to disenfranchise the Hindu girl from her professed faith. Since the central motivation is religion, this case has been added as a hate crime.
Victim Details
Total Victim
1
Deceased
0
Gender
- Male 0
- Female 1
- Third Gender 0
- Unknown 0
Caste
- SC/ST 1
- OBC 0
- General 0
- Unknown 0
Age Group
- Minor 1
- Adult 0
- Senior Citizen 0
- Unknown 0
Case Status
Complaint filed
Perpetrators Details
Perpetrators
Muslim Extremists
Perpetrators Range
One Person
Perpetrators Gender
male
Sources 
