Hindu girl abducted, forcefully converted and married by Muslim man
Maharajganj, Uttar Pradesh, India 
23 January, 2025
Case Summary
A teenage Hindu girl was abducted and forced to convert in a village under Parsmalik police station in Maharajganj. The victim’s family, along with a large crowd, stormed the house of the accused, assaulted his family members, and vandalised a school linked to him. Upon receiving information, CO Nautanwa Jaiprakash Tripathi arrived with police forces from four stations and the SOG team to control the situation. The school in question, formerly known as Sevashram, had been shut down by education officials due to allegations of religious conversion. The girl's family stated that a week ago, the school operator lured their daughter, tampered with her Aadhaar card, and arranged a fraudulent court marriage. On January 24, the victim’s father filed a complaint, accusing the man of kidnapping and coercing her into religious conversion. After an investigation, police registered a case against Sujit Sahni and Kaif on January 30. The charges were later intensified, and efforts began to locate the girl and the accused.
Why it is Hate Crime ?
This case has been added to the tracker under the prime category of- Predatory proselytisation. Under this, the prime category 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. In this subcategory, we would only include cases where the victim was harassed, threatened or coerced to convert. Cases where attempts were made to convert but the victim resisted would be documented in another sub-category. 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 second sub-category selected here is- Proselytisation by grooming, brainwashing, manipulation or subtle indoctrination and within this, the tertiary category selected is- Family claims grooming. 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. In this case, the Hindu victim was abducted and held in confinement by the Muslim perpetrators—a deliberate act of intimidation. Isolation is often employed as a means to break a victim’s resistance and enforce conversion. She was then forcibly converted to Islam and married off to the accused. In his written complaint, the victim’s father stated that his daughter was lured away and coerced into religious conversion. The details clearly indicate that the perpetrator deliberately targeted her based on her religion, with the primary intent of converting her. He deceived her, took her away, and subsequently forced her into conversion and marriage. Given that predatory proselytisation, characterized by forced conversion, abduction, and coercion, is inherently driven by hostility toward the victim’s faith, this case has been categorised as a 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 0
- Senior Citizen 0
- Unknown 1
Case Status
Complaint registered
Perpetrators Details
Perpetrators
Muslim Extremists
Perpetrators Range
From 2 To 5
Perpetrators Gender
male
Sources 
