Hindu girls selectively targeted, exploited, and pressured to convert to Islam by Muslim man posing as Hindu; accused's phone reveals explicit content of Hindu girls
Indore, Madhya Pradesh, India 
29 July, 2023
Case Summary
In Indore, Madhya Pradesh, several Hindu girls were selectively targeted by a Muslim man named Zeeshan Pathan. The accused posed as a Hindu, using the name Abhishek Thakur, to deceive Hindu girls. He drugged, sexually exploited, and pressured one of the victims to convert to Islam. According to media reports, this incident came to light when members of a Hindu organisation caught Zeeshan Pathan giving MD drugs to a Hindu girl. Following this, the Hindu victim, a resident of Satna, stated that she met Zeeshan at a friend’s party in the year 2023. He had lured the girl into a relationship, using his fabricated identity as Abhishek Thakur. They would often consume drugs together, and Zeeshan raped her multiple times while she was intoxicated, despite her resistance. Since 2024, he had been pressuring her to change her religion and had threatened her when she refused. He also lived in a rented house using false information. Members of a Hindu organisation caught Zeeshan with the Hindu victim in the Musakhedi area on 30th July 2025. He continued to use the name Abhishek Thakur, but his true identity later emerged. Hindu activists found phone numbers, chat records, and obscene photos and videos of several Hindu girls on Zeeshan's mobile phone. Following a complaint from the Hindu organisation, the Azad Nagar police arrested Zeeshan. A case was registered against him for rape and for pressuring the Hindu victim to convert to Islam. Police investigations also revealed that Zeeshan was linked to a Muslim gangster named Salman Lala, and evidence was found of him sending money to prisoners in jail. The police began an investigation even in this angle.
Why it is Hate Crime ?
This case has been added to the tracker under the primary category- Crimes against women in relationships and other sexual crimes. Within this, the subcategory selected is - Man pretends to be Hindu. The tertiary category selected is- 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 other subcategory selected is- Assault or threat upon refusal to convert. When Hindu women are in a relationship with non-Hindu men, there are cases where the woman faces threats or assault after she refuses to convert and change her religious identity owing to pressure/force by the non-Hindu man. Such relationships may be consensual with the religious identity of the non-Hindu man known to the victim. Somewhere along the relationship, the non-Hindu man starts pressurizing the Hindu woman to convert to Islam and upon her refusal, assaults or threatens the victim. Such cases are driven by specific religious motivations and against the religious identity of the victim and are therefore qualified as hate crimes. Cases where the Hindu woman converts to Islam and does not file a complaint about the force or threat, are not considered a part of the hate tracker, even though, it may be argued that the woman was brainwashed or threatened to convert to Islam. Another primary category selected in this case is- Predatory Proselytisation. Within this, the 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. The subcategory selected is- Predatory Proselytisation by grooming, brainwashing, manipulation and subtle indoctrination. Within this, the tertiary category selected is- 'Rape and sexual assault/ harassment' and 'Pattern of targeting Hindu women'. 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. In this case, the religious motive behind the crime is evident from the outset. The Muslim perpetrator, Zeeshan, deliberately concealed his Muslim identity, adopting a false Hindu identity and name to win the trust of the Hindu victim. This act alone reveals a malicious intent and clear bias against the girl, as he exploited her religious identity to befriend, manipulate, and ultimately betray her. Such calculated deception is not merely a personal betrayal; it reflects a deep disregard and hostility towards Hinduism and its adherents. Such acts of deception are used by Muslim perpetrators to target Hindu victims under false pretences and exploit them for their religious identity, making it a religiously motivated crime. Once the trust of the Hindu victim was established, Zeeshan lured, drugged, and sexually exploited her. The fact that he specifically targeted a Hindu girl for sexual exploitation by concealing his own identity shows that this was not just about personal gratification; rather, it was a premeditated effort aimed at targeting the victim because of her faith. This showcases the religiously motivated nature of the crime. Furthermore, the Hindu victim was also pressured to convert to Islam. This clearly demonstrates the religious motivations behind the crime. The act of deceiving and sexually exploiting the victim, followed by forced pressure to convert, showcases that the Hindu victim was initially profiled by the accused due to her religious identity. The final aim of the Muslim perpetrator was to convert her to Islam and make her abandon her Hindu faith. Such acts of coercion to force a Hindu individual to abandon her faith and convert to the perpetrator's faith demonstrate that the crime was rooted in religious animosity towards the victim's religious identity. When the victim resisted conversion, she was threatened. This showed that Zeeshan was prepared to go to any lengths to destroy her Hindu identity and impose Islam upon her. Such use of threats and force to break down one’s religious identity is a clear demonstration of deep-seated religious animosity that the Muslim perpetrator held towards the victim and her faith. Furthermore, the explicit evidence found on Zeeshan’s phone demonstrated that his actions formed part of a broader pattern: multiple Hindu girls had been religiously profiled and exploited by him. This systematic pattern of sexual exploitation and deceit based on religious identity highlights a deep-seated contempt for the Hindu community. The fact that the Muslim perpetrator exclusively targeted Hindu girls further underscores the religiously motivated nature of the crime. This also showcases that this was not an isolated incident, but a calculated and coordinated campaign to prey upon Hindu girls, destabilise and instil fear within the Hindu community. It stands as a stark example of a crime deeply rooted in religious animosity. Since this case clearly meets the criteria for a religiously motivated hate crime, it has been added to the hate crime database. Disclaimer: In this case, media reports have not specified the total number of victims. Therefore, for documentation purposes, we have recorded the victim count as ‘1’, referring to the girl whose complaint led to the apprehension of the accused, Zeeshan. Additionally, media reports do not specify when the victim’s ordeal began; they only mention that it commenced two years ago, when she first met the accused. The incident came to light on 30th July 2025. Therefore, for documentation purposes, we are using an indicative date- 30th July 2023, as the date of the incident. Hinduphobia Tracker records the date when the victim’s ordeal begins, rather than when it is reported in the media.
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 0
- Adult 0
- Senior Citizen 0
- Unknown 1
Case Status
Arrested
Perpetrators Details
Perpetrators
Muslim Extremists
Perpetrators Range
One Person
Perpetrators Gender
male
Sources 
