Case Summary

In Zamania, Ghazipur, Uttar Pradesh, a Hindu girl named Muskan was lured, brainwashed and pressured for religious conversion to Islam and marriage by a Muslim man named Azad Shah. The Hinduphobia tracker accessed the FIR filed by the victim's father, Mohan Ram, which stated that the accused was enticing and pressuring the victim to convert to Islam. The victim was mentally and physically tortured for religious conversion and marriage. He even took away the victim's personal documents, including her Aadhaar card, PAN card, and educational certificates. Furthermore, on 6th September 2025, at approximately 6 PM, the accused forcibly entered the victim's house and threatened to kill the entire family if they attempted to get Muskan married to someone else. Subsequently, the victim's father filed a complaint with the police, and the accused was arrested while attempting to flee. In the complaint, the victim's father also stated that the accused was part of a conversion racket and had a history of targeting Hindu girls for conversion. As of the date of writing this report, the investigation is ongoing.

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Why it is Hate Crime ?

This case has been added to the tracker under the primary category of - Predatory Proselytisaton. 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 other sub-category relevant here is - Proselytisation by grooming, brainwashing, manipulation or subtle indoctrination, with the tertiary category being - Pattern of targeting Hindus. 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 a Hindu girl was lured, brainwashed, and pressured for religious conversion by the Muslim accused. The accused persistently harassed and pressured the Hindu victim, Muskan, to convert to Islam. He unlawfully took her Aadhaar card, PAN card, and educational certificates, a tactic intended to control and trap her into compliance. This points to a pattern of grooming and manipulation intended to wear down her resistance and ultimately push her towards religious conversion. He even forcibly entered her house and threatened to kill her family if she was married to someone else. These actions show that the accused was willing to be violent to achieve his goal of religious conversion. Such acts of intimidation demonstrate that this was not an isolated episode of harassment but part of a deliberate campaign to compel her to submit to conversion and marriage. Furthermore, the targeting of a Hindu woman with the intent of forcibly changing her religion and marrying her makes clear that the offence was rooted in hostility towards her faith. The combination of coercion, unlawful entry, seizure of personal documents, and threats of violence reveals this as a deliberate and religiously motivated act of hate. The victim’s father stated that the accused was linked to a conversion racket and had a record of preying upon several Hindu girls for forced conversion. This shows that the Muslim perpetrator specifically chose to target the victim because of her Hindu identity, attempting to coerce her into conversion. The pattern of targeting multiple Hindu girls underscores that the crime was not an isolated incident but a calculated and premeditated effort against her for being Hindu. His involvement in a conversion racket further demonstrates that his actions were systematic rather than spontaneous. The threats issued by the Muslim perpetrator highlight his intent to erase the victim’s Hindu identity and impose Islam upon her by force. Such conduct exposes contempt and hostility towards her religious identity, dehumanising her faith in order to justify coercion. This makes evident the doctrinal animosity behind his actions and reinforces that this was an unmistakable instance of a religiously motivated hate crime. Given that this case meets multiple parameters of a religiously motivated hate crime, it is being added to the hate crime database. Disclaimer: The Hinduphobia Tracker records the date when the victim’s ordeal began rather than when it is reported in the media. In this case, media reports have not specified the exact date when the victim's ordeal began, though it is mentioned that the accused entered the victim's house on 6th September 2025 and threatened the victim's family. Therefore, for documentation purposes, 6th September 2025, is used as the indicative date of the incident.