Minor Hindu girl lured from home, forced to convert to Islam, coerced to wear burqa and gang-raped by Muslim family
Sitapur, Uttar Pradesh, India 
13 July, 2025
Case Summary
In Sitapur, Uttar Pradesh, a 12-year-old Hindu Dalit girl was lured away by her 15-year-old Muslim friend. The Muslim girl, along with her Muslim family, took the Hindu girl to Gujarat. The Hindu victim was made to wear a burqa and was subjected to gang-rape. The Muslim perpetrators then demanded that the Hindu victim convert to Islam. The Muslim accused included the 15-year-old Muslim girl, her mother, her father Jamal, her maternal uncle Shahrukh, and Shahrukh's accomplice. According to media reports, the Hindu victim is a resident of Bansura village. As per the victim's family, the Muslim girl had been studying with their daughter and had befriended her. The Muslim girl, with help from her father Jamal, then took the Hindu victim to Surat city in Gujarat. They coerced her into wearing a burqa. Afterwards, the Muslim girl introduced the victim to her maternal uncle Shahrukh, who, along with his companion, gave the Hindu girl intoxicants in her tea and raped her in turns. Following this, they raped her several more times, and Shahrukh forced the Hindu victim to convert to Islam. After eight days, the Hindu girl returned home and told her family about her ordeal. She said that the Muslim perpetrators repeatedly gang-raped her after giving her sleeping pills in her tea. The Hindu girl also said that they used to tell her that if she converted to Islam, she would not face any problems. Reports state that the case of the missing Hindu girl was initially brought to the police station, but the inspector did not register the missing person's report. The victim's family also stated that police officer Ashok Sonkar strangled and intimidated them, attempting to force a settlement. Following this, members of a Hindu organisation accompanied the victim’s family to the police station and demanded action. The family submitted a formal complaint. Additional Superintendent of Police (South) Durgesh Singh confirmed that the complaint had been received, a case had been registered against five people, and necessary legal proceedings were underway. Meanwhile, SHO Rampur Mathura Krishna Nandan Tiwari was suspended for negligence in this case.
Why it is Hate Crime ?
This case has been added to the tracker under the primary category- Preadatory Proselytisation. Within this, the subcategory selected is- Proselytisation by grooming, brainwashing, manipulation or subtle indoctrination. Within this, the tertiary category selected is- 'Conversion of minor', 'Rape and sexual assault/harassment', 'Family claims grooming', and 'Victim says 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. In this case, it is first important to recognise that the victim is a minor Hindu girl. This 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 or running away from their house. In this case, the Muslim perpetrators purposely targeted and exploited this vulnerability of the Hindu victim and targeted her because of her faith, making it a religiously motivated crime. The Hindu victim was lured away from her home by her 15-year-old Muslim friend and her friend’s family. The Hindu girl was coerced into wearing a burqa, an external religious symbol of the Islamic faith, and subsequently gang-raped by multiple the Muslim perpetrators. The sexual assaults were accompanied by attempts to forcefully convert her to Islam, with clear threats and coercion. The victim was told that if she embraced Islam, she would be spared further pain and violence. This combination of abduction, sexual violence, and attempted forced conversion demonstrates a concerted, targeted attack not just on the Hindu victim but also on her religious identity. The insistence that the girl convert to Islam to end her abuse reveals the deep-seated religious animosity motivating this crime. Additionally, forcing her to dress and behave according to the perpetrators’ faith, while using sexual violence as a method of intimidation and control, exposes the Muslim perpetrators' intent to destroy her sense of safety, dignity, and connection to her Hindu faith. Making her wear the burqa before the assaults was a symbolic act of stripping her Hindu identity and forcibly imposing a new religious identity upon her as an act of religious domination. Such instances where religious conversion is forced on a Hindu individual through sexual violence and coercion are glaring demonstrations of religiously motivated hate crimes. Adding to the atrocity, the police initially refused to register the family’s missing person report and even tried to intimidate them into a settlement. This inaction and intimidation by law enforcement reflect systemic prejudice and a lack of institutional protection for Hindus, further perpetuating the vulnerability of Hindus in such contexts. When authorities do not act or, worse, actively harass Hindu victims, it emboldens the Muslim perpetrators and sends a message that religiously motivated crimes against Hindus will go unpunished. Another concerning aspect of this case is that the Muslim perpetrators also involved a minor Muslim girl. This highlights the unfortunate reality that such animosity against Hindus and their faith is instilled in Muslim children from a young age. The venomous seed of hatred has historically been sown by Muslim radicals, particularly targeting Hindus who have borne the brunt of this prejudice. They openly endorse the concept of Islamic supremacy and harbour animosity towards Hindus and their religion. The sequence of events in this case was not random or opportunistic criminality; it was specifically aimed at a Hindu minor because of her religious identity. The deliberate, systematic targeting and sexual abuse—culminating in forced conversion attempts and exploitation fits the definition of a hate crime. Since this case meets multiple parameters of a religiously motivated hate crime, it is being added to the hate crime database.
Victim Details
Total Victim
1
Deceased
0
Gender
- Male 0
- Female 1
- Third Gender 0
- Unknown 0
Caste
- SC/ST 1
- OBC 0
- General 0
- Unknown 0
Age Group
- Minor 1
- Adult 0
- Senior Citizen 0
- Unknown 0
Case Status
Complaint filed
Perpetrators Details
Perpetrators
Muslim Extremists
Perpetrators Range
From 2 To 5
Perpetrators Gender
both
Sources 
