Minor Hindu girl kidnapped by Muslim man, multiple forced conversions by same Muslim family reported by villagers
Moradabad, Uttar Pradesh, India 
10 February, 2025
Case Summary
A 10th Standard Hindu girl student from Sonakpur village, Moradabad, went missing after leaving home to buy school books. Her family stated that she was kidnapped by Dilshad, a Muslim youth from the same village, who had been harassing her on her way to and from school. They filed an FIR against him, stating that both he and their daughter were missing. The girl’s mother stated that Dilshad, son of Qayyum, had been troubling her daughter for some time. The family, belonging to a poor background, survived on daily labour. The girl had previously complained about Dilshad’s harassment, but his family held influence in the village, so she eventually stopped mentioning it. On the day she went missing, villagers saw Dilshad taking her away. Villagers reported that Dilshad’s cousin had also gone away with a Hindu girl six months earlier. That girl later converted to Islam and married him. She continued to live in the village with a Muslim name. The current case led to rising tensions in the village, as Hindu families feared a pattern of forced conversions. Some Hindu families in the village linked the case to earlier incidents of abduction and religious conversion. They recalled a case where another girl from the Saini community was allegedly taken from Chandigarh, converted, and married into Qayyum’s family. They considered the current incident a deliberate attempt to forcefully convert another Hindu girl. The situation in the village grew tense as more people gathered, demanding Dilshad’s arrest and the safe recovery of the girl. Moradabad SP Rural, Kunwar Akash, confirmed that the police had registered a case based on the family’s complaint. Police teams were searching for the girl and the accused, but there was no information on her whereabouts yet. Authorities assured that efforts were being made to recover her soon.
Why it is Hate Crime ?
This case has been added to the primary category 'Predatory Proselytisation' under the sub category 'Proselytisation by grooming, brainwashing, manipulation or subtle indoctrination'. The tertiary category chosen under this secondary category is 'family claims grooming' and 'pattern of targeting Hindus'. 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 proselytization, such cases are considered religiously motivated hate crimes. In this case, the family of the minor has alleged that the perpetrator and the family of the perpetrator have a history of targeting minor Hindu girls for the purpose of conversion to Islam. When a perpetrator has a pattern of targeting Hindu girls, it becomes evident that the victims' religious identity is also at the heart of the motivation of the crime , especially when the crime itself involves disenfranchising the victim from her professed faith. It is further important to note here that the victim was a minor, which means the element of consent and genuine change of conscience 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 and the Muslim perpetrator purposely targeted and exploited this vulnerability of the victim. Since this case exemplifies the use of coercion and manipulation to achieve religious conversion, it is a blatant act of religious hate, which is why it has been documented here in the hate 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 1
- Unknown 0
Age Group
- Minor 1
- Adult 0
- Senior Citizen 0
- Unknown 0
Case Status
Complaint registered
Perpetrators Details
Perpetrators
Muslim Extremists
Perpetrators Range
One Person
Perpetrators Gender
male
Sources 
