Minor Hindu girl lured, raped, and forcibly converted to Islam by Muslim man
Pilibhit, Uttar Pradesh, India 
31 December, 2016
Case Summary
In Pilibhit district, Uttar Pradesh, a minor Hindu girl was lured and trapped into a deceptive relationship by a Muslim man who pretended to be Hindu. According to the victim, a Muslim youth named Anwar Khan, a resident of Tanakpur in Uttarakhand, lured her into his love trap in 2017, when she was still a minor. He introduced himself by concealing his Muslim real identity and took a Hindu identity. He then manipulated the girl emotionally and lured her away from her home. He changed her name to convert her to Islam. After this the accused kept her hostage and raped her several times. He also made a video of that incident to threaten her to make the video go viral if she decided to run away. Furthermore, the accused also compelled her to establish relations with multiple men in exchange for money. The accused used to keep her locked in the house by threatening her, and during this period, she gave birth to a daughter. On June 1, while Anwar was taking her somewhere, the victim spotted her father on the road. She raised an alarm, which caught the attention of local people, prompting the accused to flee the scene. The girl was then rescued. As of the date of writing this report, a case was registered by the police based on the victim's complaint. The investigation was ongoing.
Why it is Hate Crime ?
This case has been added to the tracker under the primary category of: - Crimes against women in relationships and other sexual crimes. Within it, the sub-category selected is: - Man pretends to be Hindu, with the tertiary category being: - Name changed. 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. The second sub-category selected here is: - Brainwashed and/or groomed, with the tertiary category of: - Conversion of Minor, Victim says was brainwashed/groomed 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 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 category relevant here is- Predatory proselytisation and within this, the 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. This case has been added to the tracker because a minor Hindu girl was lured into a relationship through deliberate deception and manipulation with the aim of religious conversion. The Muslim man intentionally concealed his religious identity and pretended to be Hindu just to trap a minor girl. This itself is a clear manifestation of bias and malicious intent towards the victim's religion. By concealing his true identity, he exploited her trust, targeting her under false pretences. This indicates a premeditated intent to manipulate her based on her religious background. In cases like these, the tactic of adopting a false Hindu identity to manipulate and "ensnare" a Hindu individual is not just an act of personal betrayal. This act of deception severely compromises the woman’s ability to make informed decisions regarding her relationship and religious choices. Further, this deception of making a Hindu woman believe that the accused shared her faith, only to later demand she abandon her religion, indicates a deep-seated contempt for her religious beliefs. This behaviour exemplifies an attempt to subjugate her faith, reinforcing notions of religious superiority and intolerance. The intent to change her religious identity through deceit and pressure underscores the underlying religious hatred and bigotry, driven by animosity toward the victim's religion. It is important to note here that since the victim was a minor when the crime was committed, she was incapable of providing informed consent to a relationship or any conversion activities. It is a well-established fact that children are more susceptible to manipulation since they are still developing emotionally, cognitively, and socially. Their brains are not fully mature, making them more vulnerable. In this case, the accused took advantage of these vulnerabilities and used them for religious conversion and sexual exploitation of the victim. Furthermore, the girl's name was changed to sever her ties with her Hindu identity, and by luring her away from her home, he effectively isolated her from any kind of social support system. This tactic of erasing the victim's Hindu identity is consistent with patterns observed in cases of predatory proselytisation, where victims are systematically stripped of their cultural and religious identity before being coerced into religious conversion. Thus, isolating her from her home and social support system and changing her name was an effort to make her more susceptible to religious conversion. Additionally the victim was kept in confinement, raped multiple times by the accused, and then he also compelled her to have sex with multiple men in exchange for money, essentially making her as a sex slave. This stems 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. 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 victim states that her ordeal started after she was lured by the accused in 2017 without mentioning an exact date or month. Thus, to document this case, we have used an indicative date—January 1, 2017—as a placeholder to represent the beginning of her suffering. While media coverage of the incident emerged on June 15, 2025, the Hinduphobia Tracker records the incident based on when the victim’s ordeal began, not when it was reported.
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
Complaint registered
Perpetrators Details
Perpetrators
Muslim Extremists
Perpetrators Range
One Person
Perpetrators Gender
male
Sources 
