Hindu girl trapped through lies by Muslim friend; raped at gunpoint and blackmailed for conversion to Islam
Hardoi, Uttar Pradesh, India 
22 December, 2024
Case Summary
In Hardoi, Uttar Pradesh, a Hindu girl was groomed, raped and blackmailed for religious conversion by her Muslim classmate, Reena Bano and his Muslim friend Intekhab Haider. According to reports, the Hindu girl was pursuing a diploma in Hardoi and became friends with a Muslim classmate, Reena Bano. Over time, their friendship grew, and the victim trusted Reena as her genuine friend. However, on December 23, 2024, Reena invited the Hindu girl to her home, where a trap was laid for her. Once, the Hindu girl, Reena, took her to a room where a Muslim man named Haider, a relative of Reena, was already present. As soon as the girl entered, Reena locked the door from the outside. Haider threatened the victim with a revolver and raped her at gunpoint while recording the entire act on his mobile phone. The victim screamed for help, but the room was locked, and no one came to rescue her. After the assault, Reena and Haider used the video to blackmail the victim for sexual exploitation over several months. They threatened her that if she did not comply or tell anyone, they would make the video go viral. Over the next several months, she was repeatedly raped under this threat. Furthermore, Haider also pressured the Hindu girl to convert to Islam and perform Nikah with him, even though he was already married. He told the Hindu girl to become his second wife, threatening to release the video if she refused. The victim was mentally shattered and became depressed, hiding the ordeal from her family. However, on July 11, 2025, unable to bear the abuse any longer, she decided to approach the police and file an FIR. The police promptly registered a case under sections of the rape, blackmail, pornographic content, and the Uttar Pradesh Prohibition of Unlawful Conversion of Religion Act. At first, Reena Bano was arrested by the police while Haidar was absconding. A search operation was underway to nab Haidar. Later, on July 15, 2025, the Hardoi police also arrested Intekhab Haider alias Haider.
Why it is Hate Crime ?
This case has been added to the tracker under the primary category of: - Predatory Proselytisation. Within it, the sub-category selected is: - Proselytisation by grooming, brainwashing, manipulation or subtle indoctrination, with the tertiary category being: - Rape and sexual assault/harassment. 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. The second sub-category selected here is: - Harassment, threats, coercion for conversion. Harassment covers a wide range of behaviours of an offensive nature. It is commonly understood as behaviour that demeans, humiliates, and intimidates a person, including threats and coercion. Harassment and threats, in this case, find their root on discriminatory grounds which has the effect of nullifying a person’s rights or infringing upon his freedom to exercise his right specifically owing to the victim’s religious identity. Verbal and physical threats and psychological or physical harassment are often used against Hindu victims because they choose to practice their professed religion. Religious harassment also includes forced and involuntary conversions by harassment, threats or coercion. Coercion includes intimidatory tactics like force-feeding a Hindu victim beef to convert to another religion, forceful circumcision etc. In several cases documented, non-Hindu perpetrators or those who harbour specific animosity towards Hinduism, harass victims simply based on their religious identity. Such cases often also include harassment to ensure the Hindu victim abandons his/her professed religion and adopts the religion of the perpetrator. Such cases where Hindu victims are harassed to convert to the perpetrator’s religion are rooted in animosity towards the victim’s religious identity and are therefore documented as religiously motivated hate crimes. This case has been added to the tracker because a Hindu woman was targeted for sexual exploitation and forced religious conversion by a Muslim duo, Reena Bano and Haider. The targeting was deliberate, premeditated, and executed with a clear religious motive. The method adopted here shows how calculated such traps can be: the victim was first approached not by a male, but by a fellow female student, Reena Bano. This was not incidental; it was by design. Women tend to trust other women more easily, especially in schools and colleges. Reena used this dynamic to slowly build trust and emotionally groom the victim. This was the groundwork which led to her eventual sexual exploitation and attempted religious conversion. Once their friendship grew to a point of trust, Reena lured the victim to her house under false pretences and locked her in a room with her Muslim relative, Haider. Haider raped the victim at gunpoint, and the incident was recorded to be later used as a tool for blackmail and psychological coercion for religious conversion, which was clearly the main aim of the perpetrators. Rape in this context was not just an act of sexual violence, but a calculated tool for religious subjugation. Here, rape and blackmail were weaponised as a tool for religious conversion, intended to humiliate and subjugate the victim by breaking her will. The goal was not just to violate, but to destroy her emotionally and mentally, until conversion seemed like the only way out. Haidar sought to marry the Hindu girl without her consent and thus wanted to convert her to his faith. In the Islamic faith, a marriage is deemed illegitimate if the non-Muslim partner does not convert to Islam. Therefore, the religious conversion was not a matter of faith or personal choice; it was structurally embedded in the conditions of the marriage, which was being enforced through violence and blackmail. These actions stem from inherent hostility towards the victim's professed faith since Abrahamic faiths believe that any non-adherent to the faith is subject to being dehumanised till they convert. Therefore, the victim was not chosen at random; she was targeted because of her religious identity, with the ultimate goal of religious conversion through the use of sustained physical, psychological, and sexual violence. Since such predatory actions stem from doctrinal animosity towards the Hindu faith and its adherents, this case is being documented as a religiously motivated hate crime. Disclaimer: According to the report, Reena invited the victim to her home on December 23, 2024, though no time frame is mentioned for when the victim got acquainted with Reena. Thus, to document this case, Hinduphobia Tracker has used December 23, 2024, as a reference point to mark the onset of her ordeal. While media coverage of the incident emerged on July 12, 2025, the Hinduphobia Tracker records the incident based on when the victim’s ordeal began, not when it was reported.
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 0
- Adult 1
- Senior Citizen 0
- Unknown 0
Case Status
Arrested
Perpetrators Details
Perpetrators
Muslim Extremists
Perpetrators Range
From 2 To 5
Perpetrators Gender
both
Sources 
