Minor Hindu girl abducted and lured into Nikah by a Muslim man in Madhya Pradesh
Khandwa, Madhya Pradesh, India 
9 February, 2025
Case Summary
In Khandwa, Madhya Pradesh, a 15-year-old Hindu girl was lured into a relationship by a Muslim man, and coerced to perform Nikah with him. The girl and the Muslim man eloped together, and then he married her as per Islamic rituals. The 15-year-old minor was a resident of the Thana Kotwali area. She was a student of ninth standard. During police interrogation, she said that she had befriended a young man named Arbaaz from Balaghat on Instagram. He came to Khandwa and took her to Balaghat from there. The girl was missing for 17 days. Despite the girl being a minor, he did a Nikah with her. The police went to Balaghat to catch hold of them, but the Muslim man had already dropped the girl on a bus from Balaghat to Khargone.
Why it is Hate Crime ?
This case has been added as a religiously motivated hate crime under the prime category 'Hate crimes against women in relationships and sexual crimes' of the tracker. Under this, two sub-categories have been selected. The first is- Forced conversion after marriage. According to case details, the tertiary category, ' Forced to do Nikah', under the above-mentioned category has also been selected. In such cases, a non-Hindu man is in a relationship with a Hindu woman when the pressure to convert her religion begins to manifest. The relationship in such cases is mostly consensual and the religious identity of the perpetrator is known to the Hindu woman in the relationship, however, at some point during the relationship, the non-Hindu man starts to force the victim to convert her religion and give up her Hindu religious identity. In such cases, the methods used to force the victim to convert her religion often revolve around force-feeding beef, forcing her to wear hijab, forcing her to read the Kalma or even pressurizing the victim to do ‘Nikah’, which is marriage under Islamic law, with a prerequisite being conversion to Islam. Cases where a Hindu woman consensually converts to Islam in a relationship will be left out of the hate crime database, even though it could be argued in several cases that the conversion was a result of religious brainwashing. The second sub-category selected here is- Brainwashed and/or groomed and within this, the tertiary categories selected are- 'Rape and sexual assault/harassment' and '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. In this case, the Muslim perpetrator lured a Hindu minor girl into a relationship and then coerced her into Nikah, effectively enforcing forced conversion on her, as in Islam conversion is seen as a pre-requisite for marriage. This exploitation highlights a clear religious motivation, as the accused's actions centred on manipulating the minors’ religious identities and imposing his faith as a means of control. By utilising religious conversion as a tool of coercion, his actions demonstrate not only exploitation but also deep-seated disrespect for the victims' faith and religious autonomy. Further, since the victim was a minor, it indicates a lack of 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 matured, making them more vulnerable to influence and less capable of critically evaluating information. Moreover, subtle manipulation tactics can be difficult to detect, especially when employed by trusted authority figures in positions of influence. This makes 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. For this reason, this case has been added to the tracker.
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
Unknown
Perpetrators Details
Perpetrators
Muslim Extremists
Perpetrators Range
One Person
Perpetrators Gender
male
Sources 
