Minor Hindu girl raped, forced to convert to Islam and recite namaz by Muslim man posing as Hindu

Case ID : 90a0a45 | Location : Ujjain, Madhya Pradesh, India | Date of Incident : Sat, 31 December, 2022

Case ID : 90a0a45

Ujjain, Madhya Pradesh, India

31 December, 2022

Minor Hindu girl raped, forced to convert to Islam and recite namaz by Muslim man posing as Hindu

Crimes against women in relationships and other sexual crimes

Man pretends to be Hindu

Name Changed

Assault or threat upon refusal to convert

Blackmailed to convert

Brainwashed and/or groomed

Conversion of minor

Case Summary

In Indiranagar, Ujjain, Madhya Pradesh, a 15-year-old Hindu girl was lured into a relationship by a Muslim man named Sameer, who posed as Rahul Prajapati. Sameer raped the teenager and forced her to convert to Islam, with the support of his friends Javed and Shahrukh, who assisted in coercing her to change her faith. Two years ago, the girl met a man she knew as Rahul Prajapati, who initiated a relationship with her and later sexually assaulted her. Eventually, the girl discovered that Rahul was actually Sameer, a Muslim man. When she tried to end the relationship after learning his true identity, Sameer threatened to kill her and forced her to convert to Islam. Together with Javed and Shahrukh, Sameer began making preparations for her conversion. Fearing for her life, the girl started reciting namaz. Her family soon learned of the situation, took her to the police station, and registered a complaint against the three accused. The police filed a case against Sameer, Javed, and Shahrukh under the POCSO Act, charges of rape, and the Religious Freedom Bill. All three were arrested for the rape and attempt to forcibly convert the minor girl to Islam.

Why it is Hate Crime ?

This case has been added to the tracker under the primary category of: - Crimes against women in relationships and other sexual crimes. Within it, the sub-category selected is: - Man pretends to be Hindu, with the tertiary category being: - 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 other sub-category selected here is: - Assault or threat upon refusal to convert. When Hindu women are in a relationship with non-Hindu men, there are cases where the woman faces threats or assault after she refuses to convert and change her religious identity owing to pressure/force by the non-Hindu man. Such relationships may be consensual with the religious identity of the non-Hindu man known to the victim. Somewhere along the relationship, the non-Hindu man starts pressurizing the Hindu woman to convert to Islam and upon her refusal, assaults or threatens the victim. Such cases are driven by specific religious motivations and against the religious identity of the victim and are therefore qualified as hate crimes. Cases where the Hindu woman converts to Islam and does not file a complaint about the force or threat, are not considered a part of the hate tracker, even though, it may be argued that the woman was brainwashed or threatened to convert to Islam. The other sub-category selected here is: - Blackmailed to convert. When Hindu women are in a relationship with non-Hindu men, there are cases where the woman is blackmailed to convert her religion, owing to her religious identity of being a Hindu. Such relationships may be consensual with the religious identity of the non-Hindu man known to the victim, however, there could be cases where the relationship is not consensual and the non-Hindu man starts blackmailing a Hindu woman to convert her religion. In these cases, it is often seen that the Hindu woman is blackmailed with intimate photos and/or videos, threats of harm to her or her family, threats of violence etc. Such cases are driven by specific religious motivations and against the religious identity of the victim and are therefore qualified as hate crimes. The other sub-category selected here is: - Brainwashed and/or Groomed. Within it, the tertiary category selected is - 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. This case has been added to the tracker because a Hindu minor girl was pressured for religious conversion and sexually exploited on false pretences by a Muslim man who deliberately posed as a Hindu. His malicious intent is evident from the outset as the accused deliberately concealed his religious identity to initiate and sustain a relationship with a Hindu woman. This itself is a clear manifestation of bias and malicious intent towards the victim's religion. By concealing his true identity, he exploited her trust, targeting her under false pretences. This indicates a premeditated intent to manipulate her based on her religious background. In cases like these, the tactic of adopting a false Hindu identity to manipulate and "ensnare" a Hindu individual is not just an act of personal betrayal but can also be interpreted as an expression of disdain or disregard for Hinduism and its customs that reflects a deeper animosity towards Hindus and their beliefs. Once the victim discovered the man’s true religious identity and attempted to end the relationship, she was met with death threats for refusing to convert to Islam. This reaction shows that the perpetrator was not merely interested in the relationship but was driven by a religious agenda. The girl’s Hindu identity became the target of punishment and coercion, and her refusal to convert became the trigger for threats of violence. Such targeted intimidation tied directly to her religious identity qualifies the case as a religiously motivated hate crime. Forcing or coercing a Hindu minor to learn and recite namaz is not a neutral act of religious exposure—it is a deliberate imposition of religious identity. Namaz is a core Islamic practice involving specific theological affirmations, and compelling a Hindu girl to perform it against her will amounts to forcibly replacing her religious expression with that of another faith. In the context of this case, where the girl was groomed, raped, and threatened into compliance, teaching her namaz served as a tool of religious control and submission, reinforcing the effort to erase her Hindu identity. This act, particularly when done through fear and manipulation, constitutes a religiously motivated hate crime. Threat-based conversion efforts represent an intent to subjugate the victim’s religious will and autonomy through fear. These tactics are not personal or romantic—they are used explicitly to erase the victim’s Hindu identity, replacing it with an imposed religious identity. The use of threats to compel a Hindu minor girl to adopt Islamic practices and beliefs is a direct form of religious violence, qualifying it as a hate crime against her Hindu faith. The victim was a 15-year-old Hindu girl—a minor—who was lured, groomed, and manipulated into a sexual relationship and ultimately into conversion to Islam. 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. Disclaimer: Media reports state that the victim's ordeal began when she met the accused in 2023, though no exact date is provided. To document this case, we have used an indicative date—January 1, 2023—as a placeholder to represent the beginning of her suffering. While media coverage of the incident emerged later, the Hinduphobia Tracker records the incident based on when the victim’s ordeal began, not when it was reported.