Minor Hindu girl lured and abducted under promise of marriage by Muslim man in Uttar Pradesh

Case ID : 8da196c | Location : Maharajganj, Uttar Pradesh, India | Date of Incident : Thu, 30 October, 2025

Case ID : 8da196c

Maharajganj, Uttar Pradesh, India

30 October, 2025

Minor Hindu girl lured and abducted under promise of marriage by Muslim man in Uttar Pradesh

Undecided cases

Abduction of minor

Case Summary

In the Thuthibari town of Maharajganj district, Uttar Pradesh, a minor Hindu girl was lured and abducted by a Muslim youth named Mohammad Shahil. According to reports, Mohammad Shahil, a resident of Ramnagar, lured the minor Hindu girl into a relationship and attempted to take her across the Indo-Nepal border under the promise of marriage. On 31 October 2025, the accused attempted to cross the border with the victim, during which Sahastra Seema Bal (Border Patrol) personnel noticed their suspicious movement during routine checking. The officials intercepted the couple before they could cross into Nepal and handed them over to the Thuthibari Kotwali police. During interrogation, the accused admitted to taking the victim to Nepal, while the investigation also pointed towards the possibility of involvement of human-trafficking networks. Police sent the minor girl for medical examination at the district hospital and registered a case against the accused under sections 137(2) and 87 of the Bharatiya Nyaya Sanhita. As of the date of writing this report, the accused was sent to jail, while further investigation was ongoing to determine whether any other individuals or trafficking gangs were connected to the incident.

Why it is Hate Crime ?

This case has been added to the tracker because a minor Hindu girl was lured and abducted under the promise of marriage by the Muslim accused. This could potentially be a crime motivated by religious profiling, as it has been observed that in many cases, Muslim perpetrators target Hindu minor girls due to inherent animosity towards Hindus and their faith. Hindu girls are very vulnerable to crimes like rape and sexual assault at the hands of Muslim men. However, it is also possible that the crime was one of opportunity, where the Hindu girl was simply accessible to the Muslim perpetrator. Meanwhile, it could also be argued that for a Muslim perpetrator, a Muslim girl would likely be more accessible than a Hindu girl. The fact that the accused specifically targeted the Hindu girl indicates religious profiling. Moreover, the victim was a minor at the time of the incident, thus making any supposed "consent" given for a relationship or elopement from her side legally invalid under the Protection of Children from Sexual Offences (POCSO) Act. POCSO is a strict liability law, which means that the intention of the accused or the willingness of the minor is not taken into account when determining culpability. The underlying reason is that children are not considered mentally or emotionally developed enough to make mature decisions about relationships or elopement, which makes them highly vulnerable to manipulation and exploitation. Nevertheless, this remains highly speculative, as the case details provide no clear indication of religious motivations. Furthermore, neither the victim nor her parents made any statements suggesting a religious motive behind the crime. For this reason, the case has been added to the 'Undecided' database. If further information emerges that points towards a religious motivation behind this crime, it would then be reclassified and included in the hate crime database.