Case Summary

In Bijnor district, Uttar Pradesh, multiple Hindu girls were targeted and blackmailed for religious conversion by a Muslim man named Arif. The accused concealed his Muslim identity and posed as a Hindu. According to reports, Arif, son of Farooq Ansari, was a gas stove mechanic and operated a shop at Shankar Murti Chowk. He used to lure Hindu girls by assuming a Hindu identity. After trapping them in a relationship, he used to financially exploit them, blackmail them, and convert them to Islam. When his phone was searched, pictures of several Hindu girls were discovered, which he had taken secretly without consent, confirming his long-running pattern of stalking and targeting Hindu females. Through these pictures, he used to blackmail Hindu women for religious conversion and financial exploitation. It was also revealed that he was operating multiple social media accounts using Hindu names, through which he used to trap Hindu girls. Hundreds of photos of Hindu girls and women were found in his phone. Furthermore, it was also revealed that he was involved in the trafficking of Hindu girls as well. After trapping Hindu girls in a relationship, he used to emotionally manipulate them and take them to Dubai for trafficking. Members of a Hindu organisation stated that he was involved in organ trading. When the complainant confronted Arif's father, Farooq Ansari, with such evidence, he was physically assaulted and given death threats by Farooq Ansari. As of the date of writing this report, the accused was arrested by the police, and the investigation was ongoing. Communal tensions escalated in the area due to this incident. Heavy police forces were deployed to keep the situation under control. Police had appealed for maintaining peace.

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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 sub-category being: - Name changed and Pattern of targeting Hindu women. 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 second 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 primary category selected is - Predatory Proselytisation. Within it, the sub-category selected 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. The second sub-category selected here is: - 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. This case has been added to the tracker because the Muslim accused used to deliberately target Hindu girls for religious conversion and financial exploitation. He trapped them in relationships by pretending to be a Hindu. This itself is a clear manifestation of bias and malicious intent towards the victim's religion. By concealing his true identity, he exploited the trust of Hindu girls and targeted them under false pretences. This shows a premeditated intent to manipulate them based on their religious identity. 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. The accused used to trap them into relationships, take pictures without their consent, and then use those pictures to blackmail Hindu girls for religious conversion. He lied about his Hindu identity, emotionally manipulated them, financially exploited them, and even pushed them towards trafficking. This portrays the lengths to which some Muslim individuals are willing to go to carry out religious conversions, where blackmail, manipulation, emotional abuse, and exploitation are all used as tools to force Hindu girls to abandon their faith. The ideological justification for this behaviour lies in a supremacist belief system that treats the forced conversion of non-Muslims not only as acceptable but even desirable, regardless of the means to achieve it. Furthermore, hundreds of pictures of Hindu girls were found on his phone, which again shows the sheer scale of his crime. This was not a one-off crime, but a sustained campaign against Hindu women, driven by hatred towards their faith. 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: It is important to clarify that the report does not specify the exact date when the victim's ordeal began, but the FIR was filed on July 23, 2025. Since this is the earliest date mentioned, we are considering this as when the victim's ordeal began and using this as the incident date. 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.