Minor Hindu girl kidnapped, forcibly converted in local mosque then forced to do Nikah
Kaushambi District, Uttar Pradesh, India 
14 February, 2025
Case Summary
A 13-year-old Hindu girl from Kaushambi was lured and kidnapped by a Muslim man, Rehman Ali, while on her way to school. According to her family, he took her to a local mosque and forcibly converted her to Islam before keeping her in his house after forcing her to do Nikah. The girl’s disappearance on 15 February, 2025, prompted her family to file a police complaint. Investigations revealed she had not reached school that day. On 18 February, the family learned about her abduction and conversion. Acting on this information, the police rescued the girl from the accused’s house, but Rehman Ali managed to escape. A case was registered, and the police are set to record the victim’s statement in court. Meanwhile, Hindu organisations, including the VHP, strongly condemned the incident.
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'. 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 Muslim perpetrator lured a minor Hindu girl into a mosque, forcibly converted her to Islam and then did Nikah with her. First and foremost, establishing a relationship with a minor, converting her and marrying the minor is a crime ab initio. Marriage and establishing a sexual relationship with a minor is a crime as per POCSO. Further, it is important to remember that 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 crime database.
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 
