Minor Hindu girl raped under pretext of marriage, pressured to convert to Islam, and wear burqa by Muslim man in Rajasthan

Case ID : b1c5cf5 | Location : Pali, Rajasthan, India | Date of Incident : Sun, 12 March, 2023

Case ID : b1c5cf5

Pali, Rajasthan, India

12 March, 2023

Minor Hindu girl raped under pretext of marriage, pressured to convert to Islam, and wear burqa by Muslim man in Rajasthan

Crimes against women in relationships and other sexual crimes

Brainwashed and/or groomed

Rape and sexual assault/harassment

Victim says she was brainwashed/groomed

Family claims grooming

Conversion of minor

Forced conversion before marriage

Forced to wear Hijab

Assault or threat upon refusal to convert

Case Summary

In Pali, Rajasthan, a 17-year-old Hindu girl was lured into a relationship by a 23-year-old Muslim man. The accused had enticed her with promises of marriage and foreign trips. Following this, the accused raped her over a period of two years within the guise of this relationship. He also forced her to convert to Islam and compelled her to wear a burqa and Islamic tabeez, which are lockets or amulets associated with Islamic practice. The Hinduphobia Tracker managed to contact one of the victim's lawyers, Advocate Padam Singh Kesariya. He confirmed to us that the victim is a minor Hindu girl and the accused is a Muslim man. Media reports confirm that the case was from the Rani Police Station area. The incident came to light when Judge Nihalchand of the Protection of Children from Sexual Offences (POCSO) Court No. 3 in Pali pronounced the sentence of the accused on 10th October 2025. The victim’s lawyer, Padam Singh Kesariya, stated that the family of the minor had lodged a report at Rani Police Station on 31st March 2025, detailing that their 23-year-old Muslim neighbour had lured their daughter with promises of marriage and relocation to an Arab country. From March 2023 to March 2025, he raped her multiple times whenever he found her alone. The family further stated that the Muslim accused pressured their minor daughter to convert to Islam, at times making her wear a burqa and at other times an amulet. Whenever she resisted, the accused would beat her, causing her severe emotional distress. On 13th March 2025, he called her to his house and raped her again. Following this, the victim was extremely distressed. On 25th March 2025, after her mother questioned her, the girl broke down and disclosed the events tearfully. The mother, devastated by the revelation, immediately informed her husband. The family then approached the police and filed a formal report against the Muslim accused. After the case was registered, the police submitted a charge sheet to the court on 26th June 2025. Final arguments were heard by the court on 9th October 2025. Special Public Prosecutors Kuldeep Singh Sonigra and Padam Singh Kesariya represented the complainant in court. The next day, 10th October 2025, Judge Nihalchand of POCSO Court No. 3 in Pali convicted the Muslim accused of the rape of the minor and sentenced him to 20 years of rigorous imprisonment.

Why it is Hate Crime ?

This case has been added to the tracker under the primary category- Crimes against women in relationships and other sexual crimes. The subcategory selected is- Brainwashed and/or Groomed. The tertiary categories selected are- 'Rape and sexual assault/harassment', 'Victim says she was brainwashed/groomed', 'Family claims grooming', 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 other subcategory selected is- Forced conversion before marriage. The tertiary category selected is- Forced to wear Hijab. 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 Muslim accused lured a minor Hindu girl under the false promise of marriage and of taking her to Arab and other foreign countries. Exploiting her trust and innocence, he raped her repeatedly over a span of two years and forced her to convert to Islam. The victim was also compelled to wear a burqa and tabeez (Islamic amulets), which are symbolic expressions of Islam, all against her will. It is important to emphasise that the victim was a minor. This meant that the element of consent and any genuine change of conscience were absent from the outset. Minors, due to their young age and lack of maturity, are particularly vulnerable to manipulation, grooming, and coercion. They do not possess the emotional or cognitive capacity to fully comprehend the implications of converting to another religion or being engaged in sexual or romantic activity with an adult. The Muslim perpetrator in this case deliberately targeted and exploited this vulnerability to achieve his objectives of sexual exploitation and religious conversion. Such exploitation of a minor Hindu girl represents a blatant act of religiously motivated hate directed at Hindus. The victim was deliberately targeted because of her Hindu identity. The accused had religiously profiled her, harboured hatred towards her faith, and repeatedly raped her over two years out of deep-seated religious animosity. In this case, the sexual assaults were not acts of mere gratification but expressions of religious hatred and domination. The Hindu girl was victimised because of who she was and the faith she belonged to, turning her religious identity into the basis of her suffering. Such sexual violence against a Hindu victim, carried out because of her religion, clearly reflects targeted religious hostility and transforms this crime into a severe instance of religion-based hate. The accused, while repeatedly sexually assaulting the Hindu minor, also persistently tried to force her to convert to Islam. This attempted conversion was not born of personal conviction but was imposed through external pressure, psychological manipulation, and intimidation. It was a calculated act aimed at destroying the victim’s Hindu faith and compelling her to adopt the perpetrator’s religion. Forced conversion is a direct violation of the fundamental right to practise one’s religion freely and an attack on the victim’s religious autonomy. Pressuring her to abandon her faith and embrace Islam through coercion is a direct assault on her belief system and a clear manifestation of the perpetrator’s religious hostility towards the Hindu victim. In addition to this, the accused compelled the victim to wear Islamic religious symbols, including a burqa and tabeez. These acts were aimed at erasing her Hindu identity and replacing it with an imposed Islamic identity. Forcing these symbols upon her without consent was an overt attempt to sever her cultural and spiritual roots. This was not only an act of domination but also a symbolic erasure of her religious identity, demonstrating religious animosity as a motivating factor behind the crime. Throughout this extended ordeal, the Hindu victim endured repeated sexual assaults for over two years. When the victim resisted conversion, the perpetrator would physically assault her. This shows that the motivation was not sexual desire alone, but rather religious hatred and a calculated attempt to force her to submit to his faith. The use of physical violence to compel a Hindu victim into accepting Islam reveals extreme religious intolerance and demonstrates the perpetrator’s readiness to employ any means to accomplish forced conversion, regardless of the harm inflicted. This case makes it clear that the crime was both an act of sexual exploitation and a deliberate, religiously motivated attempt to destroy the victim’s faith through coercive conversion. Targeting a Hindu minor on the basis of her religion, coupled with an attempt to force religious change, constitutes a clear example of a religiously motivated hate crime. This case is therefore being documented in the Hate Crime Database of the Hinduphobia Tracker. Disclaimer: The Hinduphobia Tracker records the date of an incident based on when the crime occurred rather than when it was reported by the media. Media outlets covered this case on 12th October 2025, after the court’s verdict on 10th October 2025. Reports state that the victim’s ordeal began in March 2023, though no exact date is provided. The earliest specific date available is 13th March 2025, when the accused last summoned the victim and raped her. Based on this information, 13th March 2023 has been taken as the indicative beginning of her ordeal. This date is used solely for documentation purposes and serves as an estimated starting point in the crime timeline.