Minor dalit Hindu girl deceived by Muslim man concealing identity, repeatedly raped and pressured to convert to Islam in Bhopal
Bhopal, Madhya Pradesh, India 
30 April, 2025
Case Summary
In Bhopal, Madhya Pradesh, a minor Dalit girl was befriended, raped, and threatened by a Muslim man named Sahil Khan, who had concealed his religious identity. The victim was a rural Hindu girl who had discontinued her education and was engaged in household chores. The accused, Sahil Khan, is a resident of a nearby village. He approached her as a Hindu by faking his Muslim identity and gradually gained her trust. Sahil helped the girl with agricultural work, and their interactions became more frequent. One day, under the pretext of taking her for a walk, he threatened and raped her. The accused had promised to marry the girl after the exploitation. The victim narrate that she was raped by Sahil on multiple occasions. and mounted pressure on her to convert to Islam and marry him. According to the police, the incident was reported by the One Stop Centre, an NGO in Bhopal that works for women's welfare. Hindu organisations protested outside the Gunga Police Station. A formal complaint was filed against Sahil Khan, son of Mateen Khan, under relevant sections of the POCSO Act and the SC/ST Act. The police then arrested Sahil and sent him to jail.
Why it is Hate Crime ?
This case has been added to the tracker under the primary category of - Crimes against women in relationships and sexual crimes, within it, the first subcategory selected is - Man pretends to be Hindu. 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 second subcategory is- Brainwashed or Groomed, and within this subcategory the tertiary categories selected are - Rape and Sexual Assault/ Harassment and Conversion of minor. 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. The third sub-category selected is - Forced conversion before marriage. In such cases, a non-Hindu man is in a relationship with a Hindu woman when the pressure to convert her religion begins to manifest. In such cases, typically, two patterns emerge. First, when the relationship is consensual, and the religious identity of the perpetrator is known to the Hindu woman in the relationship, however, at some point during the relationship, the non-Hindu man starts to force the victim to convert her religion and give up her Hindu religious identity. The second is when the woman gets into a marriage with the man pretending to share her faith. Later, when the truth is revealed, the man starts pressuring the woman to convert her religion and give up her religious identity. In both the situations, the methods used to force the victim to convert her religion often revolve around force-feeding beef, forcing her to wear hijab, forcing her to read the Kalma or even pressurizing the victim to do ‘Nikah’, which is marriage under Islamic law, with a prerequisite being conversion to Islam. Cases where a Hindu woman consensually converts to Islam in a relationship will be left out of the hate crime database, even though it could be argued in several cases that the conversion was a result of religious brainwashing. This case has been added to the hate crime database as the Muslim perpetrator posed as a Hindu to befriend a Hindu girl. This case is a clear instance of a religiously motivated hate crime, where a Hindu girl was deliberately targeted by a Muslim man who deceived her by pretending to be Hindu. This act of deceit itself is a form of manipulation rooted in religious bias, aimed at undermining the girl's ability to make an informed decision about her friendship and religious life. By misrepresenting his identity, the accused violated the woman's trust. The accused exploited the minor’s vulnerability and trust, committed rape. Thereafter, he pressured her to give up her faith and adopt an alien one, Islam. Such acts, when carried out with an awareness of the victim’s religious background, can be interpreted as crimes motivated by prejudice or hatred towards the Hindu victim, due to her faith. The minor Hindu victim in this case was pressured to convert to Islam and marry the perpetrator. Such acts of grooming and pressuring minors to convert to the perpetrator’s faith clearly indicate that the crime was religiously driven. Forcing someone to abandon their faith and adopt another religion constitutes an attack on the victim’s religious identity. The Muslim perpetrator sexually exploited the girl in order to further his underlying agenda of religious conversion and marriage. Such instances are premeditated efforts to strip the Hindu victim of her religious identity and are often carried out by Muslim perpetrators due to deep-seated animosity towards the victim’s Hindu faith. It is also important to note that, as the victim in this case is a minor, there was a complete absence of both consent and genuine change of conscience. It is well established that children are more susceptible to manipulation, as they are still developing emotionally, cognitively, and socially. Their brains are not fully mature, making them more vulnerable to influence and less capable of critically evaluating information. Moreover, subtle manipulation tactics can be difficult to detect, making it challenging for parents to identify and address instances of religious coercion. Consequently, cases involving the religious manipulation of minors not only represent an infringement on an individual’s religious freedom but also demonstrate a calculated strategy of targeting those less able to resist or understand the long-term implications of conversion, making this a significant case of religiously motivated hate crime. Disclaimer: It is important to clarify that the report does not specify the exact date when the girl'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 1
- OBC 0
- General 0
- Unknown 0
Age Group
- Minor 1
- Adult 0
- Senior Citizen 0
- Unknown 0
Case Status
Arrested
Perpetrators Details
Perpetrators
Muslim Extremists
Perpetrators Range
One Person
Perpetrators Gender
male
Sources 
