Minor Hindu girl molested and forced to marry by a Muslim man pretending to be a Hindu
Hapur, Uttar Pradesh, India 
9 February, 2025
Case Summary
In Hapur, Uttar Pradesh, a Muslim man named Sahil pretended to be Hindu called 'Sonu' and trapped a minor Hindu girl into a relationship. The girl was an 11th-grade student. Sahil, with his fake identity, built a connection with her, and both of them started talking over phone calls. On 10th February 2025, Sahil asked the girl to marry him. When the victim said that she was a minor, Sahil forced her to change the date of birth on the Aadhar card. When the girl protested, he made her drink intoxicants and took her to an empty house and tried to rape her. The girl started crying, which was heard by the locals, and they caught hold of Sahil and handed him over to the police. The victim's mother filed a complaint at the police station, and the police took immediate action and registered a case. They arrested Sahil and sent him to jail.
Why it is Hate Crime ?
This case has been added to the primary category 'Crimes against women in relationship and other sexual crimes'. Two secondary categories have been chosen for this case to accurately classify the various elements of religious animosity. The first secondary category this case is being added to is 'Man pretends to be Hindu' under the tertiary category 'Name changed'. When a non-Hindu man pretends to be a Hindu to deceive a Hindu woman into a relationship, the act is seen as triggered by malafide intentions. In some cases, the woman eventually accepts the man’s original religious identity and converts after the man’s identity is revealed. These cases could be argued as cases of religious brainwashing and a result of the pressure a woman feels after getting into a relationship with a man. The woman, it can be argued, also changed her religious identity because of the stigma she believes she might face if she chooses to walk out of a deceptive relationship. However, for the purpose of documenting hate crimes, the cases in this subcategory are limited to those where there is explicit violence aimed at religious conversion against the wishes of the victim (force-feeding beef, blackmailing with intimate videos, rape on refusal to convert, etc), or if the woman herself complains of the man’s religious deception. In such cases, it is established that the deception of the non-Hindu man had a specific aim of religious conversion or targeting of the victim due to her Hindu religious identity, therefore, making it a religiously motivated hate crime. The second sub-category this case is being added to is 'Brainwashed and/or groomed' under the tertiary categories 'conversion of minor' and 'rape and sexual assault'. 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. In this case, there are various elements that classify this case as a religiously motivated hate crime. First and foremost, it is to be kept in mind that the victim was a minor - which means the element of consent was missing ab initio. Minors, due to their young age and lack of maturity, are particularly vulnerable to manipulation and coercion. They may not have the ability to fully understand the implications of converting to another religion, establishing a sexual relationship or being in a romantic relationship with an adult at all. The Muslim perpetrator purposely targeted and exploited this vulnerability of the victim. Under POCSO, an adult establishing a relationship with a minor is a crime ab initio. In this case, there is an additional element of the Muslim perpetrator pretending to be a Hindu, thereby manipulating the minor victim into establishing a relationship of trust with him. In such cases, there is a strong element of brainwashing and grooming of a minor involved where the adult perpetrator essentially manipulates the victim into trusting him. Thereafter, the perpetrator raped and forced the minor to marry him. Pertinently, as per Islam, a marriage is not acceptable unless the non-Muslim spouse converts to Islam and often, sexual assault is used as a weapon to achieve that end. Therefore, it is also safe to assert that there was conversion of a minor involved in this case. That the Muslim perpetrator pretended to be a Hindu to deceive the victim is a strong indication that the victim was specifically profiled owing to her religious identity, making this 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 1
- Adult 0
- Senior Citizen 0
- Unknown 0
Case Status
Arrested
Perpetrators Details
Perpetrators
Muslim Extremists
Perpetrators Range
One Person
Perpetrators Gender
male
Sources 
