Hindu transgender women targeted for forced religious conversion by Muslim transgender in Bhadohi, Uttar Pradesh

Case ID : d3270e6 | Location : Bhadohi, Uttar Pradesh, India | Date of Incident : Tue, 13 January, 2026

Case ID : d3270e6

Bhadohi, Uttar Pradesh, India

13 January, 2026

Hindu transgender women targeted for forced religious conversion by Muslim transgender in Bhadohi, Uttar Pradesh

Predatory Proselytisation

Harassment, threats, coercion for conversion

Case Summary

In Bhadohi, Uttar Pradesh, seven Hindu transgender women were targeted and forced to convert to Islam by a Muslim transgender named Kinnar Manju Devi. According to reports, the victims were identified as Bijli Upadhyay, Sania Upadhyay, Bijli Sharma, Paro Prajapati, Sumo Banavansi, Nisha and Khushboo Maurya. This incident came to light when the victims reached the Suriyawan police station of Bhadohi to file a complaint against the accused Manju. They told the Superintendent of Police that Kinnar Manju Devi of the Sania area was pressurising them to leave Hinduism and convert to Islam. In their complaint, the Hindu transgenders stated that they followed Sanatan (Hindu) traditions. All their rituals, worship, and social customs were related to Hinduism. They called any form of forced conversion a violation of their constitutional rights. The Superintendent of Police, Abhimanyu Manglik, heard the complaints from the victims and, given the seriousness of the matter, ordered a Circle Officer (CO)-level investigation. Manglik also stated that if anyone was found attempting forced religious conversion, strict legal action would be taken against them. The Superintendent of Police also clarified that the Constitution granted every citizen the freedom to practise their religion, but forcing someone to convert was a crime. Meanwhile, a transgender community organisation, Ardhanarishwar, warned that if the Hindu transgender victims did not receive justice, they would launch a district-level protest. The police stated that evidence was being gathered based on the complaint received, and legal action would be taken as per the rules once the investigation was complete.

Why it is Hate Crime ?

This case is being added to the tracker under the primary category- Predatory Proselytisation. The subcategory 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, as the Muslim perpetrator pressured the seven Hindu transgender women to convert to Islam, targeting them explicitly for their Hindu identity. Their religious affiliation served as the central reason for the torment inflicted upon them, transforming personal suffering into a deliberate assault on their faith. The nature of the conversion efforts and the wider impact on the Hindu transgender community all indicate a targeted action against Hindus as a collectivity. When individuals focus their efforts on converting members of a particular religion, in this case, Hindus, it demonstrates a fundamental disregard for the Hindu faith. Conversion, especially when not based on personal conviction but rather on external pressure, is not simply about sharing a different belief system. It is an attempt to undermine the values, traditions, and identity of the Hindu community. In this context, the Muslim perpetrator specifically targeted Hindu transgenders, which suggests a lack of respect for Hinduism and its followers. Such actions were carried out to strip the Hindu victims of their faith, making it a religiously motivated crime. Conversion under such circumstances, driven by external coercion and harassment, strips victims of their spiritual autonomy and is equated to a calculated effort to eradicate their Hindu identity. The coercive tactics employed by Kinnar Manju Devi to force the victims to abandon Hinduism revealed a profound contempt for their religious beliefs, violating their fundamental right to practise their faith freely. This pattern of coercion exemplified attempted forced conversion, a hallmark of religiously motivated crimes that seek to undermine and erase the victims' religious identity. Such instances of predatory proselytisation stem from inherent hostility towards the victims' professed faith since Abrahamic faiths believe that any non-adherent to their faith is subject to being dehumanised till they convert, making it a religiously motivated crime against Hindus. Therefore, this case is being added to the hate crime database of the Hinduphobia Tracker. Disclaimer: The Hinduphobia Tracker records the dates of incidents based on when the crime occurs rather than when it is reported by the media. However, in this current case, media reports have not specified the exact date when the victims' suffering began, that is, when they were first targeted for forced conversion. Hence, the date when the media report was published, 14th January 2026, is being selected as the indicative date of the incident. This date is recorded for documentation purposes only.