Minor Hindu girl sexually assaulted by Muslim man; coerced to be in relationship with Muslim juvenile, court calls it a case of ''Love Jihad''
Jagadhri, Haryana, India 
18 November, 2024
Case Summary
In Jagadhari, a city in the Yamunanagar district of Haryana, a minor Hindu girl was sexually assaulted by a Muslim man. The accused also coerced the minor into entering a relationship with a Muslim boy, who was another perpetrator in the crime. The case proceeded to court, where the perpetrators were found guilty, and the incident was described as a case of 'Love Jihad' by the honourable court. 'Love Jihad' is a term widely recognised in media and social discourse for the phenomenon where Muslim men in India target non-Muslim women, particularly Hindu women and minor girls, for forced conversion or sexual exploitation due to their religious identity. According to media reports, in this case, the main accused was identified as Shahbaj, a 35-year-old Muslim man. He was assisted by a Muslim minor boy, who acted as his accomplice in the crime. Media reports indicate that the case came to light in November 2024, when the 14-year-old Hindu girl’s father lodged a complaint at City Yamunanagar police station, naming 35-year-old Shahbaj and the Muslim minor boy as the accused. The complaint stated that the Muslim boy had stalked the girl on her way to school, and that Shahbaj had compelled the Hindu girl to befriend the Muslim boy. Following this, an FIR was registered under sections 61(2) (criminal conspiracy) and 351(2) (criminal intimidation) of the BNS, along with sections 17 (abetment), 8 (sexual assault), and 12 (sexual harassment of a child) under the POCSO Act. In convicting and sentencing the perpetrators, the judge observed that Shahbaj systematically attempted to force an interfaith relationship on the Hindu victim through “allurement and inducement”. Shahbaj was given a four-year sentence under section 8 and a one-year sentence under section 12 of the POCSO Act, along with a two-year sentence under section 351(2) of the BNS. The sentences were ordered to run consecutively. He was convicted on 17th July 2025, and the court described the case as “Love Jihad”, sentencing the accused to a total of seven years’ imprisonment and imposing a fine of ₹1 lakh. The court also noted that such incidents posed a potential threat to the country’s sovereignty and integrity. Although it was acknowledged that ‘Love Jihad’ is not classified as an offence under the BNS, Additional Sessions Judge Ranjana Aggarwal described it as a “purported campaign by Muslim men to convert non-Muslim women to Islam by pretending to be in love”.
Why it is Hate Crime ?
This case is added to the tracker under the primary category- Predatory Proselytisation. The subcategory selected is- Proselytisation by grooming, brainwashing, manipulation or subtle indoctrination. The tertiary category selected is- 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. Another primary category selected is- Crimes against women in relationships and other sexual crimes. The subcategory selected is- Brainwashed and/or Groomed. The tertiary category selected is- 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. This case constitutes a clear instance of a religiously motivated hate crime, as the Muslim perpetrators, Shahbaj and his minor accomplice, selectively targeted a minor Hindu girl for sexual assault, grooming, and coercion purely due to her religious identity as a Hindu. This deliberate choice of victim based on faith transformed a predatory act into targeted religious persecution, where her Hindu background marked her for humiliation and exploitation. Importantly, the court observed that the incident qualified as "Love Jihad", a term widely recognised in media and social discourse for the phenomenon where Muslim men in India target non-Muslim women, particularly Hindu women and minor girls, for forced conversion or sexual exploitation due to their religious identity. Perpetrators often disguise themselves as Hindus to lure victims or reveal their faith later before enforcing conversion or assault. The court's declaration confirms that this Hindu minor faced specific targeting for her religion, not mere physical gratification, but to degrade and dominate her as a Hindu, establishing it as a religiously motivated hate crime. The Muslim perpetrator not only sexually assaulted the Hindu girl but also forced her into a relationship with another Muslim juvenile accomplice, showcasing how her religious identity enabled her dehumanisation, initial exploitation, and subsequent transfer for further abuse. This systematic process humiliated her Hindu identity, treating her as communal property to be passed among perpetrators, amplifying the intent to shame her and her community. Crucially, as a minor, she lacked capacity for consent from the outset; her young age rendered her vulnerable to manipulation, unable to grasp the long-term consequences of adult coercion. Shahbaj exploited this innocence to prey on her Hindu vulnerability, forcing ties with another Muslim boy, all rooted in religious animosity rather than random predation, cementing this as a religiously motivated hate crime. Such targeting of Hindu women and minor girls for their religious identity qualifies unequivocally as a religiously motivated hate crime, with the Hinduphobia Tracker documenting numerous parallel cases of Muslim men pursuing Hindu females for sexual exploitation or conversion driven by faith-based hostility. These patterns reveal a consistent strategy to erode Hindu demographics through predation on vulnerable Hindu women. Some cases of this nature that were previously documented by the Hinduphobia Tracker are as follows: In July 2024, in Chhattisgarh's Farasgaon police station area of Kondagaon district, Ishtiaq Qureshi, a resident of Uttar Pradesh, befriended a Hindu girl on social media by posing as Ajay Samarth. He lured her into a relationship and established physical relations by promising marriage. After sexual relations, he abandoned the girl. In this case, the police arrested the accused. Similarly, in April 2023, in Lucknow, Uttar Pradesh, a Muslim man named Irshad Ali entrapped a Hindu girl by pretending to be a Hindu named Ishwar. He even tied a Kalava on his wrist. The accused married her according to Hindu rituals, after which she was beaten and forced to embrace Islam. Similarly, in March 2024, in Jodhpur, Rajasthan, a Muslim man named Balu Mohammad deceived a Hindu girl by posing as Balu Singh on Instagram, claiming to be Hindu. He expressed that he regularly visited the temple. Their online friendship soon turned into love, and Balu travelled from Uttar Pradesh to Jodhpur to meet the girl. During this visit, they developed physical relations. When the girl expressed her desire to marry, Balu revealed his true identity and demanded she convert to Islam for the marriage. This case from Jagadhari satisfies multiple parameters of a religiously motivated hate crime, featuring a Hindu victim selected for her faith and court recognition as a "Love Jihad" incident. Therefore, this case enters the hate crime database of the Hinduphobia Tracker. Disclaimer: The Hinduphobia Tracker records the date of the incident based on when the victim’s suffering commences, rather than when the media reports it. In this case, media reports do not specify the exact date when the victim’s ordeal began; they only mention that it started in November 2024. The case appeared in the media on 19 July 2025. Therefore, for documentation purposes, 19 November 2024 serves as the indicative date of the incident.
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
Perpetrator held guilty by court
Perpetrators Details
Perpetrators
Muslim Extremists
Perpetrators Range
From 2 To 5
Perpetrators Gender
male
Sources 
