Minor Hindu girl deceived into relationship, sexually assaulted by Muslim man posing as Hindu with kalava and tilak

Case ID : d3271f6 | Location : Shahjahanpur, Uttar Pradesh, India | Date of Incident : Sat, 17 January, 2026

Case ID : d3271f6

Shahjahanpur, Uttar Pradesh, India

17 January, 2026

Minor Hindu girl deceived into relationship, sexually assaulted by Muslim man posing as Hindu with kalava and tilak

Crimes against women in relationships and other sexual crimes

Man pretends to be Hindu

Name Changed

Wears symbols of Hinduism

Raped and/or murdered after Hindu woman finds out real identity

Case Summary

In Shahjahanpur, Uttar Pradesh, a 13-year-old Hindu girl was lured into a relationship by a Muslim man who pretended to be Hindu by wearing a tilak and kalava, two sacred Hindu religious symbols. The accused also pretended to visit the famous Hindu site Hanuman Dham. When the victim discovered the accused's true identity, he began sexually assaulting her. The victim was an eighth-grade student, and the accused was a Muslim man named Afzal, who pretended to be Rajiv alias Krishna, a Hindu man. The accused, using the name "Rajiv," had developed a close relationship with the victim. On Sunday (18 January 2026), when the Hindu girl went to meet the accused at the Hanuman Dham area, she discovered that the man's real name was "Afzal" and that he was Muslim. Following this, the girl protested against the accused's deception. When she tried to go home, the accused began sexually harassing and assaulting her. He had also created fake photos and videos of her, using them as a pretext to threaten and molest her. Hearing the commotion, locals gathered, rescued the girl, apprehended the accused and handed him over to the police. Upon learning of the incident, Hindu Yuva Vahini activists gathered at Hanuman Dham and staged a massive protest, demanding strict action. Based on a complaint from the victim's father, the Chowk Kotwali police registered a case against the accused, Afzal, under relevant sections and took him into custody. According to the police, the accused initially misled the girl by giving a false Hindu name. Police investigated the matter seriously and, given the tension at the scene, deployed additional security forces. Following protests by Hindu organisations, the police calmed the situation by assuring appropriate action. A video of Hindu activists regarding this incident went viral on social media. In the video, a Hindu activist is seen saying that the police initially refused to file a complaint, tried to coerce the victim into giving false testimony and even victim-blamed the girl for the sexual assault she endured from the Muslim accused.

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- Man pretends to be Hindu. The tertiary categories selected are- Name changed, Wears symbols of Hinduism, Raped and/or murdered after Hindu woman finds out real identity. 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. In this case, the minor Hindu girl was deceived into a relationship by a Muslim man pretending to be Hindu by wearing a tilak and a kalava, two sacred Hindu religious symbols. After she discovered his true identity, he sexually harassed and assaulted her. Firstly, the perpetrator's act of deception by posing as a Hindu demonstrated clear bias and malicious intent towards the victim's religion. By hiding his true identity as Afzal, the Muslim man manipulated the minor Hindu girl's trust and targeted her under false pretences, indicating a premeditated effort to exploit her based on her religious background. This violated her right to informed consent in relationships, infringing upon her religious beliefs and the trust of her Hindu community. The perpetrator's deliberate concealment strongly underscored the religious motive behind this crime. Identity concealment was not merely a deceptive tactic for personal gain but a calculated strategy rooted in religious profiling and targeting. The accused knew the victim, as a Hindu girl, would likely refuse his advances if aware of his Muslim identity, so he lied to circumvent this, directly pointing to religiously driven intent. This reflects a larger pattern where Hindu girls are singled out using false Hindu identities, often leading to sexual assault and exploitation. Such targeted victimisation based on religion demonstrated fundamental disregard for Hinduism and exposed deeper animosity towards Hindus and their beliefs, leaving the young victim traumatised and her community outraged. The deliberate use of tilak and kalava, sacred Hindu symbols where the tilak (a vermilion mark on the forehead) signifies divine blessing, protection, and devotion to deities, while the kalava (a consecrated thread worn on the wrist) represents spiritual safeguarding, marital fidelity, and warding off evil, to trap and deceive a Hindu girl constitutes a profound hate crime. This calculated religious impersonation undermines the sanctity of these symbols by reducing them to tools of entrapment. It also disrespects their core significance in Hindu tradition, where they embody purity, faith, and cultural identity passed down through generations. The accused further deepened his deception by regularly visiting Hanuman Dham, a sacred Hindu temple dedicated to Lord Hanuman, the deity symbolising strength, devotion, and protection, with the explicit intent to convince the Hindu girl of his false religious identity. This calculated pretence not only exploited the sanctity of this revered worship site, reducing it to a mere prop in his scheme, but also showcased profound hatred towards the Hindu faith by undermining its holy spaces and traditions. Such deliberate desecration through impersonation and manipulation clearly marks this as a religiously motivated crime, targeting the girl's religious trust and identity for exploitation. Furthermore, the act of sexually assaulting the minor Hindu girl after she discovered the accused's true identity and protested revealed his intent to punish her defiance and break her spirit, forcing submission to his demands for sexual exploitation precisely because of her Hindu faith. He weaponised sexual violence as retribution for her rejection of his religious deception, targeting her as a Hindu girl who dared to protest. This was not mere sexual gratification but violence driven by malicious ideological hatred for her religious identity, transforming it into religiously motivated sexual assault that scarred a vulnerable Hindu child. It is also important to state that the victim was a minor. This meant the element of consent and genuine understanding was missing ab initio. Minors, due to their young age and lack of maturity, are particularly vulnerable to manipulation and coercion. They lack the ability to fully grasp the implications of engaging in a relationship with an adult, and the Muslim perpetrator purposely targeted and exploited this vulnerability in the minor Hindu victim. This case exemplified the use of coercion and manipulation to achieve sexual exploitation and the targeting of the Hindu girl. The police's attempt to coerce the minor Hindu victim into giving false testimony and their victim-blaming for the sexual assault she endured from the Muslim accused exposed systemic, institutionalised prejudice against Hindus reporting hate crimes. This obstruction of justice intensified the religious motivation of the incident, as authorities appeared to shield the perpetrator based on his community while dismissing the victim's trauma and Hindu identity. Such bias not only compounded the girl's ordeal but also signalled a deeper societal animosity that silences Hindu victims and perpetuates religiously motivated crimes. Since this case clearly met the parameters of a religiously motivated crime, it was added to the hate crime database of the Hinduphobia Tracker. Disclaimer: The Hinduphobia tracker records the date of an incident based on when a victim's ordeal begins, rather than when it is reported in the media. In this case, the date when the minor Hindu girl's ordeal began remains unspecified. Reports only detail the date when she discovered the Muslim accused's real identity and suffered sexual assault, which was 18 January 2026. Hence, the tracker is using 18 January 2026 as the indicative incident date for documentation purposes only.