Minor Hindu girl lured, raped and impregnated by Muslim youth posing as Hindu

Case ID : 9958441 | Location : Dewas, Madhya Pradesh, India | Date of Incident : Tue, 24 August, 2021

Case ID : 9958441

Dewas, Madhya Pradesh, India

24 August, 2021

Minor Hindu girl lured, raped and impregnated by Muslim youth posing as Hindu

Crimes against women in relationships and other sexual crimes

Man pretends to be Hindu

Name Changed

Brainwashed and/or groomed

Rape and sexual assault/harassment

Case Summary

In the Nahar Darwaza area of Dewas district, Madhya Pradesh, a minor Hindu girl was lured, raped and impregnated by a Muslim youth named Gulnawaz. The accused had concealed his Muslim identity and posed as a Hindu. According to reports, the Muslim accused, a resident of Nusrat Nagar, trapped the minor Hindu girl in a relationship by assuming a Hindu identity. He befriended the girl by telling her his name as Bhola and had been sexually exploiting her since 2021, when the girl was just 13 years old, by giving her the false promise of marriage. The truth emerged when the victim noticed the accused's real name on a poster and confronted him. During this time, the accused threatened to kill her if she spoke out. Out of fear, she remained silent until her pregnancy exposed the exploitation. When the girl complained of stomach pain, she was taken to a hospital by her family. It was revealed that she was already pregnant. Since the girl was a minor, only 17 years old at the time of pregnancy, the hospital informed the police about the delivery, after which the police initiated an investigation. Once the girl's health was stabilised, police interrogated her, after which she narrated her entire ordeal. Based on the girl's statement, a case was registered against Gulnawaz under charges of rape, the Protection of Children from Sexual Offences (POCSO) Act, and the SC/ST Atrocities Act. As of the date of writing this report, the police launched a search operation to arrest the accused and confirmed that strict action would follow.

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, with the tertiary category being - Name changed. 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, with the tertiary being - Rape and sexual assault/harassment. 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. This case has been added to the tracker because a minor Dalit Hindu girl was lured, raped and impregnated by a Muslim youth who pretended to be Hindu. The accused deliberately concealed his religious identity to initiate and sustain a relationship with a minor Hindu girl. Trying to have a relationship with the minor while pretending to be Hindu underscores the intent of the accused. This deception is a clear manifestation of bias and malicious intent towards the victim's religion. By concealing his true identity, he exploited her trust, targeting her under false pretences. This indicates a premeditated intent to manipulate her based on her religious background. 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. It is crucial to remember that the victim in this case was a minor. She was 17 years old when her pregnancy came to light and about 13 when she was first targeted by the accused. This means that any notion of genuine consent or understanding was absent from the outset. Minors, due to their age and lack of maturity, are especially vulnerable to such manipulation and coercion. They do not fully understand the implications of entering into a relationship. The perpetrator deliberately exploited this vulnerability, making the crime even more egregious. This case clearly exemplifies the use of deception and manipulation to exploit a Hindu minor, and hence, it is an example of a religiously motivated crime. Disclaimer: Media reports stated that the victim was being sexually exploited for about four years, though no exact date or month is provided. Thus, to document this case, we have used an indicative date—August 25, 2021—as a placeholder to represent the beginning of her suffering. While media coverage of the incident emerged on August 25, 2025, the Hinduphobia Tracker records the incident based on when the victim’s ordeal began, not when it was reported.