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

Case ID : 995804f | Location : Lucknow, Uttar Pradesh, India | Date of Incident : Wed, 23 July, 2025

Case ID : 995804f

Lucknow, Uttar Pradesh, India

23 July, 2025

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

Crimes against women in relationships and other sexual crimes

Man pretends to be Hindu

Brainwashed and/or groomed

Rape and sexual assault/harassment

Conversion of minor

Forced conversion before marriage

Forced to do Nikah

Blackmailed to convert

Assault or threat upon refusal to convert

Case Summary

In Lucknow, Uttar Pradesh, a 14-year-old Hindu girl was befriended and lured into a relationship by a Muslim man named Armaan alias Adnan. The accused concealed his religious identity and enticed the girl into a relationship under the pretext of marriage. Subsequently, the girl was sexually exploited by Armaan, who also filmed obscene photographs and videos of her. Members of his family then began to blackmail and coerce the girl to convert to Islam and marry Armaan. According to media reports, the victim’s father reported that his minor daughter was befriended by Armaan, a resident of Chungi Khatta, through Instagram. Armaan invited her to meet him, during which he had concealed his Muslim identity. Upon meeting, he took her to a room, sexually exploited her, and created an obscene video. When the girl protested, he detained her in various hotels for 15 days under the promise of marriage and continued to engage in non-consensual sexual relations. He later took her to his house, where Armaan’s father, sister Nazia, elder brother, and others threatened the girl to ensure her silence. Despite this, she managed to inform her family of her plight over the phone. The victim’s father reported that when he contacted Armaan and his family, they threatened to circulate the obscene video of his daughter and demanded two lakh rupees. The girl’s family confirmed that Armaan continued to exploit their daughter, using the photos and videos as leverage, and would call her daily to sexually exploit her. Additionally, the family also reported that Armaan and his family applied pressure and blackmailed the girl to convert to Islam and marry Armaan. The accused, Armaan, also issued death threats to the victim’s family. Subsequently, the girl's family sought help from the police, who registered a case against the accused. However, Armaan remained absconding.

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 subcategory selected is- Man pretends to be Hindu. 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. The tertiary category selected is- 'Rape and sexual assault/harassment' and '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. The other subcategory selected is- Forced conversion before marriage. Within this, the tertiary category selected is- Forced to do Nikah. In such cases, a non-Hindu man is in a relationship with a Hindu woman when the pressure to convert her religion begins to manifest. In such cases, typically, two patterns emerge. First, when the relationship is consensual, and the religious identity of the perpetrator is known to the Hindu woman in the relationship, however, at some point during the relationship, the non-Hindu man starts to force the victim to convert her religion and give up her Hindu religious identity. The second is when the woman gets into a marriage with the man pretending to share her faith. Later, when the truth is revealed, the man starts pressuring the woman to convert her religion and give up her religious identity. In both the situations, the methods used to force the victim to convert her religion often revolve around force-feeding beef, forcing her to wear hijab, forcing her to read the Kalma or even pressurizing the victim to do ‘Nikah’, which is marriage under Islamic law, with a prerequisite being conversion to Islam. Cases where a Hindu woman consensually converts to Islam in a relationship will be left out of the hate crime database, even though it could be argued in several cases that the conversion was a result of religious brainwashing. The other subcategory selected in this case 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 subcategory selected in this case 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. This case demonstrates the characteristics of a hate crime, as it involves the deliberate targeting, exploitation, and an attempt to forcibly convert the Hindu victim to Islam. This case shows that the Hindu girl was targeted based on her religious identity. The actions of Armaan, the Muslim perpetrator, and his Muslim family were not only criminal but also motivated by hostility towards the victim's Hindu faith, as evidenced by several key aspects. Firstly, the perpetrator, a Muslim man, deliberately concealed his true identity while befriending the minor Hindu girl. This act of deception was not a random choice; it was a calculated effort to exploit the girl's trust, religious beliefs and cultural norms. This action was done to manipulate the girl into believing that the accused belonged to her own religious community. This was done with the intent to manipulate the Hindu victim and target her because of her religious background. This targeting based on religion is a fundamental marker of a religiously motivated crime. Furthermore, it is also important to consider that the Hindu victim in this case is a minor. This means 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 or being in a relationship with an adult. In this case, 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 religiously motivated hate crime. Furthermore, once the Muslim perpetrator established trust with the Hindu victim, he proceeded to sexually exploit the girl, hold her hostage, and record obscene photos and videos without her consent. This severe violation of the girl's dignity and bodily autonomy, particularly carried out by someone who purposefully sought a Hindu victim, demonstrates hostility towards the individual's religious identity, making it a religiously motivated crime. The most explicit indicator of religious animosity occurred when the Muslim perpetrator and his family coerced the Hindu victim to convert to Islam and marry the perpetrator. Religious conversion under threat or duress is a direct attack on a person's religious freedom and identity, and in this case, was employed as a form of coercion against the Hindu victim. The demand for conversion and marriage was not incidental but a targeted and systematic attack on the victim and her faith. Such actions are rooted in religious animosity towards the Hindu community, making it a religiously motivated crime. Following this, the Hindu girl was further blackmailed using the obscene photos and videos, with conversion to Islam presented as a condition to prevent the release of this material. This is another form of religious coercion, where the victim's Hindu faith became a weaponised aspect of her suffering. Such acts to coerce and blackmail a Hindu girl to convert to Islam demonstrate the religious animosity behind the crime even more evidently. Reports also confirmed that when the victim's family resisted the forced conversion and marriage of their daughter, they received death threats and threats to release the obscene videos and pictures. This collective targeting of a Hindu family by a group of Muslim perpetrators, for opposing forced conversion and exploitation of their daughter, further demonstrates the religiously motivated nature of the crime. Since this case meets multiple parameters of a religiously motivated crime, it is being added to the hate crime database. Disclaimer: It is important to clarify that the report does not specify the exact date when the girl's ordeal began. Therefore, for documentation purposes, we have recorded the date based on when the incident was reported in the media. Media reports state that the perpetrators involved in the crime were Armaan, his father, his sister, his elder brother and other family members, but do not mention the exact number. Therefore, for documentation purposes, we are keeping the perpetrator count as '4'.