Hindu girl abducted, forced to convert to Islam, and pressured for marriage by Muslim man

Case ID : aa4b0c8 | Location : Raebareli, Uttar Pradesh, India | Date of Incident : Sun, 27 April, 2025

Case ID : aa4b0c8

Raebareli, Uttar Pradesh, India

27 April, 2025

Hindu girl abducted, forced to convert to Islam, and pressured for marriage by Muslim man

Predatory Proselytisation

Harassment, threats, coercion for conversion

Case Summary

In Jagatpur area of Uttar Pradesh, an 18-year-old Hindu girl was abducted, converted to Islam, and was being pressured for marriage by a Muslim youth identified as Jan Mohammad, a resident of Harditikar village. The girl had gone to visit her grandmother on April 28, 2025 and subsequently went missing. Her father, a local farmer, began searching for her when she failed to return home. Although a complaint was lodged with the local police, no immediate action was taken. It was only after increased pressure that an FIR was finally registered against the accused for abduction. Police later received a tip-off that Jan Mohammad was attempting to move the girl to another location. Acting swiftly, authorities intercepted them, rescued the girl, and the accused was arrested. During interrogation, the girl revealed that she had been forcibly converted by the Muslim man and was being pressured to marry him. She was sent for medical examination, while Jan Mohammad was remanded to judicial custody.

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: - 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 constitutes a clear instance of a religiously motivated hate crime, wherein a Muslim man abducted a Hindu girl, forcibly converted her to Islam, and subsequently coerced her into marriage. The pattern has been seen in numerous documented incidents where Hindu girls are targeted by individuals from the Muslim community who employ emotional manipulation, deceit, threats, and even violence as tools of religious conversion. The absence of free will and informed consent in the conversion process, particularly in the context of an 18-year-old girl who had just attained adulthood, underscores the coercive nature of the act. The pressure to marry immediately after conversion further reveals the exploitative intent to sever her connection with her Hindu faith and community. Such incidents often occur due to the deep-seated religious animosity that exists in Islam against non-Muslims, where the conversion of non-Muslims is not only desirable but also justified by any means necessary. The religious identity of the victim, hence, played a central role in the targeting, making this not just a criminal offence but a communally motivated act aimed at altering the religious identity of the victim through coercion and exploitation.