Minor Hindu girl lured, blackmailed, kidnapped, and forcibly converted by Muslim gang; conversion racket targeting Hindu girls exposed
Kushinagar, Uttar Pradesh, India 
26 July, 2025
Case Summary
In Kushinagar, Uttar Pradesh, a minor Hindu girl was lured, blackmailed, kidnapped, and forcibly converted to Islam by a Muslim man named Iskhar Ansari. Ansari was part of an Islamic conversion racket targeting Hindu girls. The incident dates back to January 2023, when a Hindu man named Sunil Verma used to operate a fast food card in the Padrauna Kotwali area to support his family. During this time, the Muslim man named Iskhar Ansari trapped Sunil Verma's 16-year-old daughter in his love trap under false pretences. The Muslim man sexually exploited the minor Hindu girl and recorded over ten obscene videos of her. These videos were then shared by the accused with his gang member Taufiq Ansari, who used them to blackmail the girl's father, threatening to make them viral. It was also revealed that the gang had fraudulently changed the girl’s name in her Aadhaar card to erase her Hindu identity. When Sunil Verma protested, he was threatened with death by other gang members, Aashiq Ansari, Imtiaz, Mohammad Sahab Ansari, and Ziaul Qamar Ansari, prompting him and his family to flee to their native village. Despite their relocation, the gang pursued them to Amritsar, from where the minor girl was abducted and brought to Kushinagar. The Hindu girl was forcibly converted to Islam and was kept in illegal confinement. The police, based on the father's complaint, launched a search operation involving the cyber cell and SWAT unit, eventually rescuing the Hindu girl. Police also arrested eight people, including two women, Qaiser Jahan and Fatima, who were responsible for brainwashing the victim by exposing her to Islamic religious materials. During interrogation, the accused revealed that they are part of an organised gang that specifically targets Hindu girls. In this case, too, the girl had been under their watch for several years. They lured and manipulated her with false promises and inducements, eventually coercing her into religious conversion. The gang leader, Taufiq Ansari, used obscene videos of the victim and recordings of her conversion to Islam to blackmail her family. The female accused Kaiser Jahan and Fatima of assisting in misleading the victim by showing her Islamic material. At the time of documenting this incident, the search for other members of the gang involved in the incident was still ongoing.
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, and within this, the sub-category is- Brainwashed and/or groomed. The tertiary categories selected under this are- Conversion of minor, Rape and sexual assault/harassment and Pattern of targeting Hindu minors. 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 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 is: - Conversion/ attempts to convert by inducement. Predatory Proselytisation is not just limited to threat, harassment, force and violence, but it also has contours of stealth. In several cases, the Hindu victim is exploited to convert, with non-Hindus taking advantage of their poverty. In such cases, the Hindu victim who is suffering financially is offered monetary benefits, including lucrative offers for jobs, health treatment, education, etc, to induce the victim into changing his/her religion. In such cases, the religious identity of the victim and the aim to disenfranchise him from his faith form the heart of the crime. Also, taking advantage of and exploiting an individual’s economic vulnerabilities is widely acknowledged as exploitation, forms of which are often penalised by law. Such cases, therefore, are considered religiously motivated hate crimes since the victim’s religious identity forms the very heart of the crime itself. The case has been added to the tracker because a minor Hindu girl was targeted for religious conversion by a Muslim man who was part of an organised Islamic conversion racket. The incident was not an isolated offence but part of a sustained and calculated pattern, wherein Hindu girls—particularly minors—are systematically lured through psychological grooming, emotional manipulation, and blackmail, eventually leading to physical and sexual exploitation. The forcible renaming of the victim was not just an act of deceit but a deliberate attempt to strip her of her Hindu identity and forcibly embed her into another religious framework. These acts were meant to sever her connection to her faith, family, and community. Such actions reflect a deeper, ideological motive, one that is rooted not in personal desire but in religious hostility towards Hinduism. The victim was targeted precisely because she was Hindu, and every step of the crime, from grooming to conversion, was rooted in an animosity towards her faith. This aligns with the broader phenomenon of predatory proselytisation, where conversion is pursued not through theological persuasion but through deceit, emotional coercion, inducement or sexual violence. The involvement of sexual exploitation of a minor girl makes the crime even more severe. In such cases, sexual violence in these contexts serves a dual purpose: physical subjugation and religious humiliation. The intention is to break the victim down, emotionally, physically, and spiritually, so that she can be converted. Such 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. 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. It is further important to note here that the victim was a minor when her ordeal began, 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: It is important to clarify that the report does not specify the exact date when the victim's ordeal began. Therefore, for documentation purposes, we have recorded the date based on when the incident was reported in the media.
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
Case sub-judice
Perpetrators Details
Perpetrators
Muslim Extremists
Perpetrators Range
From 5 to 10
Perpetrators Gender
both
Sources 
