Hindu minor girl blackmailed, raped, forcibly converted and married by Muslim men in Solapur, Maharashtra
Solapur, Maharashtra, India 
4 December, 2024
Case Summary
A Hindu minor girl aged 16 was lured, blackmailed with private photos, raped, forcibly converted to Islam, and then married by a Muslim man in Solapur, Maharashtra. The incident came to light when the victim lodged a complaint against five Muslim perpetrators, including a lawyer. The case unfolded in December 2024, when the 16‑year‑old Hindu girl was stalked and lured by a Muslim man. He obtained her private photographs and used them to threaten her. Under this coercion, she was subjected to rape. In December 2025, the accused Israel Shaikh lured the victim with the promise of marriage and took her to the city of Qazi’s office. There, Advocate Abdullah Khateeb stated that religious conversion was necessary for marriage and forced her to sign documents to convert her to Islam. After the sexual assault, she was compelled to abandon her faith and convert to Islam against her will. Following the conversion, the perpetrators arranged her marriage, forcing her into a union without consent. After the marriage, she continued to suffer inhuman treatment and atrocities at the hands of the accused. The victim later filed a complaint at the Bijapur Road police station, stating that after being forcibly converted and married, she was kept in Kalaburagi, Karnataka, for a few months. There, the accused’s cousin and his mother beat her, starved her, and tortured her. On 5 February 2026, the Solapur police registered a case based on the victim’s ordeal. The FIR named five Muslim perpetrators, including one lawyer. Out of the five accused, Israel Shaikh, Uzeb Shaikh, and Advocate Abdullah Khateeb were arrested, while two others remained absconding. The charges filed covered rape of a minor, forced religious conversion, and child marriage. The police investigation was ongoing, with efforts to apprehend the absconding accused.
Why it is Hate Crime ?
This case has been added to the tracker under the primary category of Predatory Proselytisation. Within it, the sub-category selected is - Proselytisation by grooming, brainwashing, manipulation or subtle indoctrination, with the tertiary category being - Conversion of minor, Rape and sexual assault/harassment, Pattern of targeting Hindus, and the victim says she was brainwashed/groomed. 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 other sub-category relevant here 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. The second primary category selected here is- Crimes against women in relationships and other sexual crimes. Within this, the sub-category selected is- Brainwashed and/or groomed, with the tertiary category being- Rape and sexual assault/harassment, Conversion of minor, Victim says she was brainwashed/groomed. 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’ 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 are crimes, for 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 hate crimes. The other sub-category selected is- Forced conversion before marriage, with the tertiary category being- Forced to do Nikah. 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 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 pressurising 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 relevant here is- Blackmailed to convert. When Hindu women are in a relationship with non-Hindu men, there are cases where the woman is blackmailed to convert her religion, owing to her religious identity of being a Hindu. Such relationships may be consensual with the religious identity of the non-Hindu man known to the victim, however, there could be cases where the relationship is not consensual and the non-Hindu man starts blackmailing a Hindu woman to convert her religion. In these cases, it is often seen that the Hindu woman is blackmailed with intimate photos and/or videos, threats of harm to her or her family, threats of violence etc. Such cases are driven by specific religious motivations and against the religious identity of the victim and are therefore qualified as hate crimes. This case has been added to the tracker because a 16‑year‑old Hindu minor girl in Solapur was lured, blackmailed with private photographs, raped, and pressured into religious conversion by Muslim perpetrators. Her ordeal began when she was stalked and entrapped as a minor, subjected to brutal sexual exploitation, and then coerced into abandoning her faith. In such cases, sexual violence serves a dual purpose: physical subjugation and religious humiliation. The intention was to break the victim down emotionally, physically, and spiritually so that she could be converted. These actions stem from hostility towards the Hindu faith, since Abrahamic traditions often treat non‑adherents as subjects to be dehumanised until they convert. Religious conversions, even of minors, are thus seen as a badge of honour, with no regard for the violent and coercive methods used to achieve them. Because such predatory actions are rooted in doctrinal animosity towards Hindus, this case is documented as a religiously motivated hate crime. The victim was taken to the Qazi’s office in December 2025, where Advocate Abdullah Khateeb declared that conversion was necessary for marriage and forced her to sign documents to adopt Islam. This was followed by a coerced marriage to Israel Shaikh, after which she was kept in Kalaburagi, Karnataka, where she was beaten, starved, and tortured by the accused’s relatives. The perpetrators operated as part of an organised network that specifically targeted Hindu women, entrapped them through deceitful romantic involvement, and then forced or manipulated them into conversion. Because the accused acted as a group with an explicit agenda to erode Hindu identity through deceit, inducements, blackmail, and threats, this incident was not an isolated personal matter but part of a wider hate‑driven conspiracy against Hindus. The Solapur case is not merely an individual crime but a manifestation of a larger ideological campaign aimed at the gradual Islamisation of India. This agenda seeks to erode Hindu identity and alter the country’s demographic and cultural fabric. Muslim extremists harbour deep‑seated animosity towards Hindus and view India as a Hindu collectivity that must be dismantled or subdued. Historically, Islamic conquests have relied not only on military force but also on psychological coercion, forced conversions, and cultural erasure. This case reflects the continuation of that mindset in modern forms. It is important to note that the victim was a minor, which means consent and genuine change of conscience were absent from the outset. Minors, due to their age and lack of maturity, are particularly vulnerable to manipulation and coercion. The perpetrators deliberately exploited this vulnerability, using grooming and deceit to entrap her. Since this case exemplifies the use of coercion and manipulation to achieve religious conversion, it is a blatant act of religious hate. Such acts are not merely criminal; they are ideologically charged, revealing religious prejudice and a calculated intent to alter the religious identity of a Hindu minor without her volition. Disclaimer: The victim stated that the accused began blackmailing her in December 2024 and continued coercive acts into 2025, but no precise incident date has been specified. For documentation purposes, an indicative date of December 5, 2024, has therefore been used. The Hinduphobia Tracker records incidents based on when the victim’s ordeal is reported to have begun rather than the reporting date. Since no exact day was provided, the selected date reflects the reporting timeline along with the month and year when the victim was first targeted.
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
Case sub-judice
Perpetrators Details
Perpetrators
Muslim Extremists
Perpetrators Range
From 2 To 5
Perpetrators Gender
male
Sources 
