Case Summary

In Kushinagar, Uttar Pradesh, a minor Hindu girl was abducted, raped and forcibly converted by a Muslim man named Shamsuddin Ansari. According to reports, the accused lured and abducted the minor Hindu girl from the Barwa Bazaar area in Kushinagar and took her to Mumbai. He then raped her and forcibly converted her to Islam, changing her name to Rehana Khatoon. He also made a new Aadhaar card (identity card) under this new identity. The Hinduphobia Tracker accessed the FIR filed by the victim's mother, which revealed additional details. The victim went to school on 1 August 2022 but did not return home. The family searched for her but could not find any trace. Two days later, the accused called the victim's family, claiming that the girl had run away with him of her own consent and instructed them to stop searching. Following this, the girl's family filed a police complaint, which led to an investigation. The police laid a trap for the accused and lured him back to Kushinagar, where he was arrested. The victim was then rescued and handed over to her family. At the time of this report, the investigation was ongoing to determine whether this crime was linked to a larger conversion network.

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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 - Conversion of minor and 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 other sub-category relevant 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 because a minor Hindu girl was abducted, raped, and forcibly converted by a Muslim man. The minor girl was abducted and taken to Mumbai, effectively isolating her from her family, social support system, and her cultural roots. Such acts are designed to isolate the victim and undermine her sense of safety, making her conversion much easier. Once isolated, she was raped and forcibly converted to Islam. In such cases, sexual violence often 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. This was not random sexual violence; it is systematic, targeted, and rooted in religious animosity. Furthermore, changing her name was meant to sever her connection from her previous identity, a symbolic erasure of her previous Hindu identity. 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. Therefore, religious conversions by Muslim individuals, even of minors, are often seen as a badge of honour, totally disregarding the methods used to achieve it. 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. The accused claimed that the victim went with him of her own consent. It is important to note here that the victim was a minor, 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 or even having a relationship, 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. Such acts are not merely criminal in nature; they are ideologically charged, revealing religious prejudice and a calculated intent to alter the religious identity of a minor without her volition. Disclaimer: Since the victim was kidnapped on August 1, 2025, the date of the incident is recorded as August 1, 2025. While media coverage of the incident emerged on August 11, 2025, the Hinduphobia Tracker records the incident based on when the victim’s ordeal began, not when it was reported.