Minor Hindu girl lured, molested and made to wear burqa by Muslim youth pretending to be Hindu
Etah, Uttar Pradesh, India 
30 January, 2026
Case Summary
In Etah, Uttar Pradesh, a minor Hindu girl was lured, molested and made to wear a burqa by a Muslim youth named Asif. The accused wore a Kalava on his wrist to don a Hindu identity to lure the victim. According to reports, locals intercepted a Muslim youth at the roadway's bus stand in Etah, while he was escorting a minor Hindu girl dressed in a burqa. The accused made the minor girl wear the burqa and was taking her somewhere before being intercepted by the locals. Subsequently, he was handed over to the Kotwali Nagar police. The incident triggered an immediate response from Hindu organisations, whose members gathered at the police station, expressing anger and describing the episode as a case of love jihad involving the entrapment of a minor Hindu girl. The Muslim youth was identified as Asif, son of Munna, and was found wearing a sacred thread on his wrist, which Hindu activists stated was used to mislead the girl about his religious identity. Hindu activist Arvind stated that he had received information about the abduction of a minor Hindu girl and, upon reaching the location, he helped apprehend the accused and pressed for strict police action. Additionally, the girl’s father submitted a written complaint to the police, stating that his daughter was a minor and that she was lured and molested by Asif. He also revealed the victim had been performing pujas differently for some time, under the influence of the accused. Members of the Vishwa Hindu Parishad and Bajrang Dal subsequently arrived at the police station and demanded immediate and stringent action. Shivang Gupta, district vice president of the Vishwa Hindu Parishad, stated that the girl was a Class 10 student at an inter-college and that the Muslim youth had been attempting to take her away from the bus stand. Following the unrest and the formal complaint, the police initiated an investigation into the matter.
Why it is Hate Crime ?
This case has been added to the tracker under the primary category- Predatory Proselytisation. Within this, the subcategory selected is- Proselytisation by grooming, brainwashing, manipulation or subtle indoctrination. The tertiary categories under it are: Family claims grooming, Conversion of minor and Rape and sexual assault/harassment. Religious brainwashing essentially means the often subtle and forcible indoctrination to induce someone to give up their religious beliefs to accept contrasting, regimented ideas. Religious grooming or brainwashing also involves propaganda and manipulation. It involves the systematic effort, driven by religious malice and indoctrination, to persuade “non-believers’ to accept allegiance, command, or doctrine to and of a contrasting faith. Cases of such grooming or brainwashing are far more nuanced than direct threats, coercion, inducement and violence. In such cases, it is often seen that there is repeated, subtle and continual manipulation of the victim to induce disaffection towards their own faith and acceptance of the contrasting faith of the perpetrator. While subtle indoctrination is widely acknowledged as predatory, an element which is often understated in such conversions or the attempts of such conversion is the role of loyalty and trust which might develop between the perpetrator and the victim. Fiduciary relationships are often abused to affect such religious conversion. For example, an educator transmitting religious doctrine of a competing faith to a Hindu student. The Hindu student is likely to accept what the teacher is transmitting owing to the existence of the fiduciary relationship. The exploitation of the fiduciary relationship to religiously indoctrinate victims would also be included in this category. Since the underlying animosity towards the victim’s faith forms the basis of predatory proselytisation, such cases are considered religiously motivated hate crimes. The second primary category selected here is - Crimes against women in relationships and other sexual crimes. Within it, the sub-category selected here is - Brainwashed and/or groomed. The tertiary categories under it are: Family claims grooming, Conversion of minor and Rape and sexual assault/harassment. 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- Man pretends to be Hindu. Within this, the tertiary category selected is- Wears symbols of Hinduism. 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. This incident reflects a religiously motivated hate crime as a Hindu woman was deliberately targeted through religious deception. The minor Hindu girl was lured, molested and made to wear a burqa by a Muslim youth named Asif. The Muslim youth consciously wore a kalava, a sacred Hindu symbol, to impersonate a Hindu identity, showing clear awareness that the victim’s trust was rooted in shared faith. Such concealment of religious identity was not incidental but a calculated act to bypass her consent and exploit her religious beliefs. By misusing Hindu symbols to gain access and trust, the accused demonstrated religious profiling, indicating that the girl was chosen specifically because she was Hindu, making the act one driven by anti-Hindu religious bias rather than a neutral personal deception. Firsly, it is important to note here that the victim was a minor, 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, 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. Additionally, any supposed consent given for a relationship or elopement is already considered invalid under the POCSO Act. Such acts are not merely criminal in nature; they are ideologically charged, revealing religious prejudice and a calculated intent to alter the religious identity of a minor without her volition. The use of grooming, where trust is built only to exploit, is an insidious method that exploits the child’s naivety and dependence. In this context, the testimony of the victim's father holds considerable weight. Secondly, the victim's father revealed that the accused lured and molested the victim. He also said that under his influence, she had been performing puja differently, a manner that was inconsistent with her earlier Hindu religious upbringing, indicating deliberate interference in her faith. This change did not occur spontaneously but reflected a gradual process of grooming, wherein the accused sought to distance the victim from her Hindu identity and convert her to Islam. By reshaping her daily practices and beliefs, the accused aimed to erode her religious consciousness over time, using manipulation and coercion to prepare the ground for religious conversion. Similarly, molestation or sexual violence was intended to break her emotionally, physically, and spiritually, so that she could be converted. This was not random; it was systematic, targeted, and rooted in religious animosity. Thirdly, the victim was also made to wear a burqa by the accused. Making her wear the burqa was not just a random act; it was a deliberate and malicious attempt at religious conversion. By making her wear the burqa, he was trying to impose Islamic practices on her and push her towards accepting an Islamic lifestyle. This imposition was done to normalise Islamic customs for her, making future conversion easier and smoother. Such actions stem from inherent hostility towards the victim's professed faith since Abrahamic faiths believe that any non-adherent to the faith is subject to being dehumanised till they convert. Therefore, religious conversions, even of minors, are often seen as a badge of honour, totally disregarding the methods used to achieve it. Since such predatory actions stem from doctrinal animosity towards the Hindu faith and its adherents, this case is being documented as a religiously motivated hate crime. Disclaimer: The Hinduphobia Tracker records incidents based on when an event occurred or when the victim's ordeal began. It is important to clarify that none of the media sources covering this case has specified the exact date when the victim's ordeal began or when she came into contact with the accused. Therefore, for documentation purposes, we have recorded the date based on when the incident was reported in the media, 31 January 2026.
Victim Details
Total Victim
1
Deceased
0
Gender
- Male 0
- Female 1
- Third Gender 0
- Unknown 0
Caste
- SC/ST 0
- OBC 0
- General 0
- Unknown 1
Age Group
- Minor 1
- Adult 0
- Senior Citizen 0
- Unknown 0
Case Status
Arrested
Perpetrators Details
Perpetrators
Muslim Extremists
Perpetrators Range
One Person
Perpetrators Gender
male
Sources 
