Minor Dalit girl abducted, converted and forcibly married by two Muslim men in Muzaffarnagar, Uttar Prdaesh
Muzaffarnagar, Uttar Pradesh, India 
4 October, 2025
Case Summary
A minor Hindu girl was abducted, converted, and married by two Muslim men in Muzaffarnagar, Uttar Pradesh. She belonged to the Dalit community and was taken from her village under the Budhana police station area on the night of 5 October 2025. Some reports also state that the incident happened on October 10, 2025. The main perpetrator, Talib, a resident of Meerut, along with his nephew Shadab, lured the girl under false pretences and took her to Vadodara, Gujarat, where he forcibly converted her to Islam and performed Nikah with her. The victim’s family lodged a written complaint at the local police station demanding her recovery. Acting on the complaint, the police registered a case under multiple sections of the law, including the POCSO Act, the Uttar Pradesh Prohibition of Unlawful Religious Conversion Act, and the SC-ST (Prevention of Atrocities) Act. The girl was safely rescued on 26 October 2025. Both Talib and Shadab were arrested from Garhi Chauraha in Budhana, Muzaffarnagar, on 28 October 2025. It was later discovered that Talib, who had lured the girl and forced her conversion, was already married, a father of three children, and had been in contact with the victim for the past five years.
Why it is Hate Crime ?
The primary category in this case is: Predatory Proselytisation. Proselytisation by grooming, brainwashing, manipulation or subtle indoctrination. The tertiary category under this 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 proselytisation, such cases are considered religiously motivated hate crimes. The other category selected here is- Crimes against women in relationships and other sexual crimes. Under this, the subcategory selected is- Forced conversion before marriage, and the tertiary category selected is- Forced to do Nikah. In such cases, a non-Hindu man marries a Hindu woman, and the force/pressure to convert to any Abrahamic faith, like Islam, begins after marriage. In such cases, typically, two patterns emerge. First, when the relationship is consensual, and the religious identity of the perpetrator is known to the Hindu woman in the relationship. The marriage could be under the Special Marriages Act, where neither parties are required to convert their religion for the marriage to be considered legitimate. While the victim in such cases enters matrimony assuming that religious identity is not a barrier, the non-Hindu man starts to pressure the woman to convert her religion after marriage. The second is when the woman gets into a marriage with the man, pretending to share her faith. Later, when the truth is revealed, the man starts pressuring the woman to convert her religion and give up her religious identity. In both situations, there is application of force by the perpetrator, including the denial of the woman’s religious rights. Some of the means by which the woman is forced/pressured to convert include force-feeding beef, being forced to read the Kalma, being forced to wear a hijab, forced to undergo Halala, etc. There are several instances where, after marriage, the woman voluntarily converts to Islam. Such cases are often argued to be a result of religious brainwashing, however, for the purpose of documenting religiously motivated hate crimes, in the absence of the victim complaining of forced conversion, such cases do not form a part of the database. The other subcategory relavant is- Brainwashed and/or groomed. Within this, the tertiary category selected is- Conversion of minor. 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. This case has been included in the Hinduphobia Tracker because it represents a clear instance of predatory proselytisation directed against a minor belonging to the Hindu Dalit community. The sequence of events reveals that the perpetrators deliberately targeted a vulnerable girl, exploiting her social and economic background and her limited capacity to comprehend the gravity of religious conversion. The use of deception, abduction, and coercive conversion reflects a calculated attempt to destroy the victim’s religious identity rather than an act of personal choice or mutual affection. The element of religious hate is intrinsic to this case. The perpetrators’ intent was not merely to form a relationship but to systematically erase the girl’s Hindu identity and subsume her into a contrasting religious order through conversion and forced marriage. This demonstrates an ideological hostility toward her faith and an active desire to assert dominance over it. The deliberate exploitation of a minor’s trust, coupled with forcible conversion, underscores the deep-seated animus that drives such acts. It is crucial to recognise that a minor cannot provide informed consent, especially in matters involving religion or marriage. Hence, the conversion and subsequent Nikah are not legitimate expressions of free will but manifestations of coercion disguised as acceptance. The targeting of a Hindu minor for religious conversion reveals a predatory pattern of behaviour that weaponises emotional dependency and social vulnerability to achieve religious subjugation. Such incidents are recorded in the tracker because they are not isolated acts of personal misconduct but part of a larger pattern of faith-based hostility aimed at undermining Hindu identity through manipulation and forced conversion. This case, therefore, qualifies as a hate crime against Hindus, as it reflects the deliberate use of religious coercion and psychological exploitation to achieve the erasure of a Hindu individual’s faith and identity. Disclaimer: The date of the incident has been chosen as 5 October 2025, though several reports mention the date of abduction as 10 October 2025. The earlier date has been selected for consistency in documentation.
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
Arrested
Perpetrators Details
Perpetrators
Muslim Extremists
Perpetrators Range
From 2 To 5
Perpetrators Gender
male
Sources 
