Minor Hindu girl lured and raped by Muslim man disguising as a Hindu in Kannauj, Uttar Pradesh

Case ID : b1c5bbf | Location : Kannauj, Uttar Pradesh, India | Date of Incident : Mon, 29 September, 2025

Case ID : b1c5bbf

Kannauj, Uttar Pradesh, India

29 September, 2025

Minor Hindu girl lured and raped by Muslim man disguising as a Hindu in Kannauj, Uttar Pradesh

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

A Muslim youth named Nadeem, son of Chand Mian, deliberately concealed his religious identity to befriend a sixteen-year-old Hindu intermediate student and rape her in Kannauj's Gursahaiganj area. He obtained her mobile number and initiated contact under false pretences while she attended college in the town. On 30 September 2025, Nadeem escorted the minor to a guest house in Gursahaiganj operated by one Ravi Shankar. When the student discovered Nadeem's Muslim identity and resisted his advances, Nadeem confined her with the help of the guesthouse operator. Nadeem then raped the teenager, leaving her severely distressed. Following the assault, Nadeem threatened to murder the victim's father and brother if she disclosed the crime. The traumatised minor returned home and recounted the entire episode to her mother. Her family subsequently accompanied her to the Gursahaiganj police station to file a formal complaint. Police registered a case against both perpetrators under relevant sections of the Bharatiya Nyaya Sanhita and the Protection of Children from Sexual Offences Act. Police authorities confirmed the arrest of Nadeem and Ravi Shankar in connection with the sexual violence and illegal confinement of the Hindu minor.

Why it is Hate Crime ?

The primary category in this case is: Crimes against women in relationships and other sexual crimes. The first subcategory under this is: Man pretends to be Hindu. The tertiary category under this is: 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. Another subcategory under this is: Brainwashed and/or groomed. The tertiary category under this is: Rape and sexual assault/harassment. In several cases, a Hindu woman and/or minor is sexually harassed and/or assaulted with a religious motive. For example, in a case in Kausambi, UP, a Hindu girl was raped by non-Hindu perpetrators. During the assault, the victim pleaded to 'spare her in the name of Bhagwan'. The perpetrators then asked her to plead in the name of Allah. This clearly indicates a religious motive for the crime and evidences the religious animosity the perpetrators harboured against the victim owing to her religious identity. Such cases would be added to this tertiary category since the religious animosity makes the crime a hate crime. The Kannauj case warrants inclusion in the Hinduphobia Tracker because it demonstrates a definitive pattern of religiously motivated predation against Hindu females, executed through calculated deception and sexual violence. This incident extends beyond the statutory definition of rape into the realm of ideological hate crime, fulfilling multiple established criteria for documenting anti-Hindu persecution. The perpetrator’s initial concealment of his Muslim identity constitutes the primary deceptive strategy, falling under the subcategory of a non-Hindu male feigning Hindu affiliation to facilitate access to his victim. This deliberate misrepresentation confirms malicious intent from the inception of the contact, transforming a personal interaction into a faith-based manipulation. The crime further qualifies under the subcategory of grooming and brainwashing, evidenced by the systematic method through which the perpetrator cultivated trust before revealing his true religious identity and initiating sexual violence. The temporal sequence—deception, isolation, identity revelation, resistance, confinement, and rape—reveals a premeditated methodology rather than spontaneous criminal conduct. The involvement of the guest house operator, Ravi Shankar, indicates institutional facilitation of such crimes, suggesting broader community complicity in enabling religiously targeted sexual violence. Critical to its classification as a hate crime is the specific juncture at which the sexual assault occurred: immediately following the victim’s discovery of and resistance to the perpetrator’s Muslim identity. This chronology establishes a direct causal relationship between religious disclosure and sexual violence, positioning the rape as a punitive action for rejecting religious difference. The subsequent threats against the victim’s male relatives employing familial protection instincts as leverage, further weaponise Hindu family structures against the victim, compounding religious humiliation with emotional extortion. This case mirrors documented patterns where sexual violence functions as an instrument of religious subjugation, intended to shatter both personal autonomy and communal religious identity. The perpetrator’s actions communicate a clear ideological message: that Hindu females represent legitimate targets for sexual predation regardless of consent, and that their religious identity makes them vulnerable to such violations. The systematic nature of this operation—from initial contact manipulation through to the coordinated confinement—demonstrates an operational blueprint for anti-Hindu predation that transcends individual criminality. This case exemplifies how religious hatred manifests through sexual crimes designed to degrade and terrorise entire communities rather than merely victimise individuals. The inclusion of this incident in the Hinduphobia Tracker serves to document this specific manifestation of religious persecution, where Hindu females are systematically targeted for sexual violence predicated on their religious identity, establishing critical precedent for recognising such patterns as organised hate crime rather than isolated offences. Disclaimer: The perpetrator count for this incident has been recorded as one (Nadeem) in accordance with the documentation standards of the Hinduphobia Tracker, which specifically archives crimes committed by non-Hindus against Hindus. The guest house operator, Ravi Shankar, though complicit in the confinement, is not classified as a primary perpetrator of the religiously motivated sexual crime under these criteria. Should subsequent investigation reveal additional individuals directly involved in the anti-Hindu aspect of this offense, the record will be revised accordingly to reflect complete accountability.