Minor Hindu girl targeted for religious conversion and sexually assaulted by Muslim man posing as Hindu

Case ID : e274f5a | Location : Mandsaur, Madhya Pradesh, India | Date of Incident : Sun, 3 August, 2025

Case ID : e274f5a

Mandsaur, Madhya Pradesh, India

3 August, 2025

Minor Hindu girl targeted for religious conversion and sexually assaulted by Muslim man posing as Hindu

Crimes against women in relationships and other sexual crimes

Man pretends to be Hindu

Name Changed

Brainwashed and/or groomed

Conversion of minor

Rape and sexual assault/harassment

Case Summary

In Daloda town of Mandsaur district, a minor Hindu girl was lured into a relationship and raped by a 19-year-old Muslim youth named Rehan Khan Mewati. According to reports, the Muslim youth was a resident of Nayapura, Mandsaur, and is a mechanic by profession. He created a fake social media profile on Instagram under the Hindu name, Narendra Patidar, to befriend the minor Hindu girl from Daloda. Over time, their online interaction grew into a relationship, and they started meeting secretly. On August 4, the accused picked up the girl from her school under the pretext of taking her to coaching, but instead took her to a secluded area along LG Road. They sat in bushes for an extended period, where the accused sexually molested the victim. Suspicions grew among the locals, who immediately informed the police. Police reached the location and arrested the Muslim accused and rescued the minor girl. Police took both of them to the police station for further investigation. As news of the incident spread rapidly on social media, hundreds of locals, including the girl’s family and members of Hindu organisations, gathered at the Daloda police station, demanding stringent action against the accused. The crowd surrounded the police station for nearly five hours, raising slogans and calling for bulldozer action against the house of the accused. The angry people also blocked a nearby four-lane highway, disrupting traffic and heightening tension in the area. Police intervened and assured strict legal actions in an effort to pacify protestors, after which the blockade was lifted. As of the date of writing this report, an FIR against Rehan was registered by the police under several serious provisions, including the POCSO Act, IPC Sections 363, 366, and 376 (raped), as well as the Madhya Pradesh Religious Freedom Act. He was arrested and produced before the court. Meanwhile, the minor girl underwent a medical examination, and her statement was recorded to establish the full extent of the crime.

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. 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 second sub-category selected here is - Brainwashed and/or groomed, with the tertiary category being - Rape and sexual assault/harassment and Conversion of Minor. 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 has been added to the tracker because a minor Hindu girl was deceived into a relationship and raped by a youth, who posed as a Hindu man named Narendra Patidar. The accused deliberately concealed his religious identity to initiate and sustain a relationship with a minor Hindu girl. Having a relationship with a minor girl is itself a crime under the POCSO Act. Furthermore, the deception was 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 but can also be interpreted as an expression of disdain or disregard for Hinduism and its customs that reflects a deeper animosity towards Hindus and their beliefs. Furthermore, the accused was also charged under the sections of rape and the Madhya Pradesh Religious Freedom Act. This proves that the accused had intentions of converting the minor Hindu girl. Often in such cases, rape or sexual violence serves a dual purpose of physical subjugation and religious humiliation. The intention is to break the victim down, emotionally, physically, and spiritually, so that she can be converted. Thus, in this case, even sexual violence was rooted in religious animosity. Such actions stem 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. Therefore, religious conversions, even of minors, are often seen as a badge of honour, totally disregarding the methods used to achieve it. 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. It is further important to note here that the victim was a minor, 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. Since this case exemplifies the use of coercion and manipulation to achieve religious conversion, it is a blatant act of religious hate, which is why it has been documented as a hate crime. Such acts are not merely criminal in nature; they are ideologically charged, revealing religious prejudice and a calculated intent to alter the religious identity of a minor without her volition. The use of grooming, where trust is built only to exploit, is an insidious method that exploits the child’s naivety and dependence. Disclaimer: It is important to clarify that the report does not specify the exact date when the victim's ordeal began, but it mentions that the accused was caught with the minor and arrested on August 4, 2025. Since this is the earliest date mentioned, we are considering this as when the victim's ordeal began and using this as the incident date. While media coverage of the incident emerged later, the Hinduphobia Tracker records the incident based on when the victim’s ordeal began, not when it was reported.