Minor Hindu girl lured into relationship, raped and pressured to convert to Islam over 12 years by Muslim man in Uttar Pradesh
Jaunpur, Uttar Pradesh, India 
2 March, 2014
Case Summary
In Jalalpur, located in the Jaunpur district of Uttar Pradesh, a minor Hindu girl, aged 10, was lured into a love affair, then abducted, raped and pressured to convert to Islam by a Muslim man named Ashfaq. The accused harassed and blackmailed the victim for religious conversion for the past 12 years (from 2014). According to reports, this came to light when the victim was a 22‑year‑old woman. She filed a complaint against Ashfaq in the year 2026. The victim stated that the accused had lured her into a relationship when she was 10 years old in 2014 and had abducted her and raped her brutally. Following this, he also began pressuring her to abandon Hinduism and convert to Islam. After all this, he began blackmailing and harassing her for religious conversion for over 12 years. The victim filed a complaint against the accused with the Jalalpur police, and they arrested the accused, Ashfaq, on 3 March 2026. The police arrested him near the Hauz Toll Plaza. Based on the victim’s complaint, the police registered a case under serious sections and sent him to jail after questioning. A police team led by Station House Officer Gajanand Choubey was investigating the case. Acting on accurate information from an informant, the police raided the Hauz Toll Plaza and arrested the accused, Ashfaq. According to the police, strict legal action is being taken against the accused by registering a case against him under the kidnapping, rape and anti‑conversion laws.
Why it is Hate Crime ?
The primary category selected in this case is- 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, Conversion of minor, and 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’ 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- 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. Another primary category selected is- Predatory Proselytisation. The subcategory selected is- Proselytisation by grooming, brainwashing, manipulation or subtle indoctrination. The tertiary categories selected are- Rape and sexual assault/harassment, Conversion of minor, and 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 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 proselytization, such cases are considered religiously motivated hate crimes. The other 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 is a clear instance of a religiously motivated hate crime because a minor Hindu girl was lured into a relationship by a Muslim man and then abducted, raped and pressured to convert to Islam by the perpetrator. The accused also blackmailed and harassed her for over 12 years to force religious conversion, turning what should have been a protected childhood into a prolonged campaign of religious and sexual exploitation, amounting to a hate-driven offence. Here, it is important to note that the victim was a minor when she was targeted, 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. By choosing a minor from a Hindu background, he weaponised her innocence and religious inexperience, highlighting how her Hindu identity made her an easy target for predatory grooming. Since this case exemplifies the use of coercion and manipulation to achieve sexual exploitation and religious conversion, it is a blatant act of religious hate, which is why it has been documented here in the hate tracker. Luring a minor Hindu girl into a relationship with the intent to sexually violate her and then pressure her to convert to Islam itself shows that the victim was initially targeted by the accused with the intent to strip her of her Hindu identity. The relationship was not a spontaneous or mutual emotional bond; it was a calculated hook to gain access to a young Hindu girl, isolate her and distort her sense of self‑worth and faith. The victim was seen not as a person but as a Hindu symbol to be violated, converted and controlled, making her an easy prey for both sexual and religious domination. This pattern clearly shows that the Muslim accused targeted her religious identity first, and only then layered sexual violence and conversion pressure on top of it, making it a clear case of a religiously motivated hate crime. In this incident, rape served not as an isolated act of sexual gratification but as a tool to sexually violate and target a Hindu girl precisely because of her religious identity. The rape was used to exploit her, humiliate her and break her spirit, while also sending a broader message of contempt towards her Hindu community. By choosing a minor Hindu girl and subjecting her to repeated sexual violence within the context of a long‑term relationship and conversion project, the accused turned the abuse into a continuous ritual of degradation tied to her faith. The enormity of the humiliation and the years of silence he imposed through blackmail show that the goal was not pleasure but power over a Hindu girl’s body, mind and religious belonging. This showcases religious animosity very clearly, as the violence is framed, sustained and weaponised around her Hindu identity rather than her individuality alone. Forcing the Hindu victim to convert is a hate crime driven by religious animosity. Converting someone under threat, blackmail, and prolonged emotional terror is an act of spiritual coercion that directly attacks the victim’s religious autonomy and constitutional rights. The Muslim accused sought to strip off the victim’s Hindu faith, not because she genuinely sought a new belief system, but to erase her existing religious identity and replace it with his own. Such forced conversion denies the victim the right to choose her own faith and replaces it with a faith imposed through fear, intimidation and sexual exploitation. This is not a religious change of conscience; it is religious domination masked as “conversion.” The deliberate attempt to uproot a young Hindu girl from her ancestral faith and community is an attack on her very personhood and the wider Hindu social fabric, making it a clear case of religiously motivated hate crime. The severity of the matter becomes even clearer when one looks at the extent and duration of the harassment and blackmail that the victim was subjected to for over 12 years. To subject a Hindu girl to constant blackmail and harassment for such a long period, with the sole aim of forcibly altering her religious identity, reveals the depth and persistence of the hatred the perpetrator held for her Hindu identity. Over more than a decade, he used secrets, threats and psychological control to keep her in a state of fear and submission, turning her life into a prolonged hostage‑situation where her faith was the primary bargaining chip. This extraordinary length of time shows that the hatred was not impulsive but deeply rooted, strategic and sustained. The way the abuse and coercion were woven into a long‑term campaign of religious subjugation makes it obvious that the victim was targeted not just sexually but religiously, and that the entire 12‑year period served as a continuous hate‑driven project to erase her Hindu self. The attacker’s focus on her Hindu identity from the very beginning, the systematic way he exploited her vulnerability, and the prolonged nature of the coercion all point to a deliberate and calculated religiously motivated hate crime. By documenting this case, the tracker aims to highlight how such acts are not isolated incidents but part of a broader pattern of religious animosity directed against Hindus, and to ensure that the victim’s suffering and the ideological dimension of the crime are not reduced to a mere personal or sexual offence, but recognised as a clear case of religiously motivated hate. Overall, since this case meets several parameters of a religiously motivated hate crime, it is being added to the hate crime database of the Hinduphobia Tracker. Disclaimer: The Hinduphobia Tracker records the dates of incidents based on when a victim’s ordeal begins, rather than when it is reported by the media. In this case, the media reports have not stated the exact date when the victim’s ordeal began. They only state that she was first targeted in 2014 by the accused. The only other date the media report states is the date when the accused was arrested, and that is 3 March 2026. Hence, based on both these pieces of information, 3 March 2014 is being selected as the indicative incident date for documentation purposes only.
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 
