Minor Hindu girl raped on the pretext of marriage, tortured and forced to convert to Islam

Case ID : aa4b33e | Location : Vadodara, Gujarat, India | Date of Incident : Sat, 31 December, 2022

Case ID : aa4b33e

Vadodara, Gujarat, India

31 December, 2022

Minor Hindu girl raped on the pretext of marriage, tortured and forced to convert to Islam

Crimes against women in relationships and other sexual crimes

Forced conversion before marriage

Brainwashed and/or groomed

Rape and sexual assault/harassment

Conversion of minor

Assault or threat upon refusal to convert

Case Summary

A 17-year-old Hindu girl was lured into a relationship under the pretext of marriage by a Muslim man named Sohail Pathan. The girl was raped multiple times over a period of two years and then forced to convert to Islam. The Hinduphobia Tracker contacted the police, who confirmed that the victim was a Hindu girl. According to news reports, The victim girl, who lives on Ajwa Road in the Kapurai police station area of Vadodara, Gujarat,was 17-years-old in 2023 when she came in contact with rickshaw puller Sohail Nazimkhan Pathan. The two started talking and took their relationship forward by exchanging mobile numbers. Sohail used to take her for walks and used to promise her marriage. When the girl informed her mother and grandmother about this, both of them said that she was too young and should decide after she becomes an adult. Meanwhile, the accused kept the minor with him at a house in Ajwa Road, claiming he would marry her once she became an adult. During this period, which lasted approximately two years, Sohail Pathan raped the minor repeatedly. When the girl reached adulthood and asked Sohail to marry her, his attitude changed. He began forcing her to convert to Islam and prevented her from communicating with anyone. In addition, the accused began physically assaulting her. Unable to bear the abuse any longer, the Hindu girl, who was now 19 years old, returned to her mother’s house. However, even after this, Sohail Pathan and his two friends, Mohammad Junaid Malek and Faim Afimwala, continued to threaten her, demanding she return back to Sohail. Referring to an incident that transpired on May 17, the victim said in her complaint that on that day, Sohail’s two friends, Faim and Junaid, came to her and threatened to kill her and took her to Sohail’s house. It is said that Sohail beat her up and put cigarette butts on her hands. The next day, the victim ran away from Sohail’s house and informed her family, who reached Kapurai police station and lodged a complaint, after which the police registered a case under POCSO and arrested the main accused, Sohail Pathan, along with his two accomplices, Mohammad Junaid Malek and Faim Afimwala.

Why it is Hate Crime ?

This case has been added to the tracker under the prime category of 'Crimes against women in relationships and sexual crimes'. Under this, the sub-category chosen is- Brainwashed and/or groomed. Further, as per the details, the tertiary categories selected here 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 hate crimes. The other relevant subcategory 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. The other subcategory selected is - Assault or threat upon refusal to convert. When Hindu women are in a relationship with non-Hindu men, there are cases where the woman faces threats or assault after she refuses to convert and change her religious identity owing to pressure/force by the non-Hindu man. Such relationships may be consensual with the religious identity of the non-Hindu man known to the victim. Somewhere along the relationship, the non-Hindu man starts pressurizing the Hindu woman to convert to Islam and upon her refusal, assaults or threatens the victim. Such cases are driven by specific religious motivations and against the religious identity of the victim and are therefore qualified as hate crimes. Cases where the Hindu woman converts to Islam and does not file a complaint about the force or threat, are not considered a part of the hate tracker, even though, it may be argued that the woman was brainwashed or threatened to convert to Islam. In this case the minor victim was lured into a relationship and raped under the pretext of marriage. When the girl asked the perpetrator to marry her, he began forcing her to convert to Islam. In this instance, while the Muslim accused did not hide his identity, the nature of the relationship suggests that the Hindu girl was initially led to believe that her faith would not be a barrier to their romantic involvement. Trusting the accused's word, she entered the relationship, during which the Muslim man repeatedly raped the girl under the pretence of marriage. However, his true intentions were exposed when he began pressuring her to convert to Islam. To further coerce the victim, he resorted to threatening her along with his accomplices. The accused's actions glaringly demonstrate that it was not just about sexual exploitation of the Hindu girl. The accused desired to strip the victim of her Hindu identity and force her into adopting Islam. These actions are not isolated instances of sexual assault but rather actions rooted in animosity towards the victim's faith. Furthermore, the victim was physically assaulted and threatened when she refused to convert to Islam. This highlights that how Muslim perpetrators use violence and coercion as means to further their underlying agenda of religious conversions. These instances are a result of hatred and intolerance for the victim's original faith, as the perpetrator is indoctrinated by Islamic theology, which commands that Muslims convert non-Muslims to Islam, in this case, Hindus. This manifests itself in instances of violence against Hindus and Hindu women for denying the offer to convert to Islam. This makes the religious nature of the crime even more evident. It may be noted here that the victim in this case was a minor when the crime occurred, 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, and are particularly vulnerable to manipulation and coercion. They may not have the ability to fully understand the implications of converting to another religion, and the Muslim perpetrator purposely targeted and exploited this vulnerability of the victim. Since the religious motive of the crime is evident from these facts, this case has been documented as a hate crime. The perpetrator targeted the victim specifically because of her Hindu faith, manipulated her into a relationship under false pretences, raped her and then pressured her to convert to Islam. This highlights a pattern of manipulation, abuse, threats, and violence, all centred around forcing her to change her religious beliefs. Such actions are designed to intimidate, control, and harm the Hindu victims because of their Hindu background. This targeting based on religion, combined with the instances of raping and pressuring the victim to convert to Islam, is what makes this case a hate crime against a Hindu woman, and therefore, it is being added to the hate crime database. Disclaimer: Media reports state that the victim’s ordeal began when she met the accused almost 2 years ago, though no exact date or month is provided. To document this case, we have used an indicative date—January 1, 2023—as a placeholder to represent the beginning of her suffering. While media coverage of the incident emerged on May 22, 2025, the Hinduphobia Tracker records the incident based on when the victim’s ordeal began, not when it was reported. Further, while media reports confirm that the victim is now an adult, the harassment and coercion into conversion occurred when she was still a minor. Therefore, we have categorised the case under the "minor" age group, based on when the incident began.