Hindu minor girl targeted by Muslim youth masquerading as Hindu; lured, drugged and sexually exploited
Bhagalpur, Bihar, India 
30 June, 2025
Case Summary
In Bhagpalpur, Bihar, a minor Hindu girl was lured, drugged, and sexually exploited by a Muslim youth who pretended to be a Hindu boy named Sonu to trap her. To harass her, the Muslim accused also filled the girl's hair parting with sindoor (red vermilion), a Hindu ritual performed by the groom on the bride’s hair parting, symbolising marriage. According to reports, the Hindu girl was returning from her maternal home with a friend when, in Singheshwar, the Muslim boy approached her by posing as Sonu. He stopped her at a tea stall and promised to drop her home. He then mixed some intoxicants into her tea, causing her to lose consciousness. The boy then took her to a hotel, where he sexually exploited her. He kept her in the hotel overnight, and the following morning, when she insisted on going home, he again gave her intoxicants. Afterwards, he took the victim to the Singheshwar temple premises, where he applied sindoor and placed a garland around her neck. Subsequently, the local Hindus identified that the boy was Muslim and confronted him. When the girl discovered his true identity, she also beat him. One of the locals present at the scene informed the police about the incident. Following this, the police officers from the Singheshwar Police Station arrived at the scene and took both the Muslim accused and the Hindu victim to the police station. SHO Virendra Ram stated that both were minors, and a senior officer was informed of this incident. The victim’s mother also arrived at the police station on 2nd July 2025 and stated in her application that the accused had sexually exploited her daughter in the hotel at night. Following this, a case was registered against the accused. The police began interrogating him and launched further investigations into this matter.
Why it is Hate Crime ?
This case has been added to the tracker under the primary category- Crimes against women in relationships and other sexual crimes. Within this, the first subcategory selected is- Man pretends to be Hindu. The tertiary category selected is- Name Changed and Marries as per Hindu rituals. 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 subcategory selected is- Brainwashed and/ or Groomed. Within this, the tertiary category selected is- 'Rape and sexual assault/ harassment'. 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 religious motive behind the crime is evident from the Muslim perpetrator’s deliberate concealment of his Muslim identity to deceive a minor Hindu girl. This act alone demonstrates clear bias and malicious intent towards the victim’s religion. By hiding his true identity, the perpetrator exploited the victim’s trust and targeted her under false pretences, showing a calculated intent to manipulate her based on her religious background. Adopting a false Hindu identity to gain her trust is not only a personal betrayal but also a demonstration of religious hostility towards the victim due to her religious identity. Once the perpetrator had gained the trust of the Hindu victim under false pretences, he lured her with the promise of taking her home and then drugged her. He subsequently took her to a hotel, where she was sexually exploited. This sequence of events makes it clear that the victim was specifically targeted through deceit and then exploited because of her faith, highlighting the religious motivations behind the crime. The perpetrator’s act of taking the girl to a temple and filling her hair parting with sindoor further illustrates his intent to reinforce his fabricated Hindu identity. The act of applying sindoor symbolises marriage in Hindu tradition, and by doing this, the perpetrator sought to deceive the victim even further. It is crucial to remember that the victim in this case is a minor. This means that any notion of genuine consent or understanding was absent from the outset. Minors, due to their age and lack of maturity, are especially vulnerable to manipulation and coercion. They may not fully understand the implications of entering into a marital relationship. The perpetrator deliberately exploited this vulnerability, making the crime even more egregious. This case clearly exemplifies the use of deception and manipulation to exploit a Hindu minor, and hence, it is an example of a religiously motivated 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
Complaint filed
Perpetrators Details
Perpetrators
Muslim Extremists
Perpetrators Range
One Person
Perpetrators Gender
male
Sources 
