Minor Hindu girl lured, raped, and abducted by Muslim man; had history of targeting Hindu girls

Case ID : e274fc2 | Location : Padra, Gujarat, India | Date of Incident : Wed, 6 August, 2025

Case ID : e274fc2

Padra, Gujarat, India

6 August, 2025

Minor Hindu girl lured, raped, and abducted by Muslim man; had history of targeting Hindu girls

Crimes against women in relationships and other sexual crimes

Brainwashed and/or groomed

Rape and sexual assault/harassment

Pattern of targeting Hindu minors

Case Summary

In Padra taluka of Vadodara district, a 16-year-old Hindu minor girl named Sagira was lured into a relationship, raped, and abducted by a Muslim man named Irfansha Ayyubsha Diwan. According to reports, the accused was a resident of the Mahuvad area and had a history of molesting Hindu girls. In this case, he lured the minor Hindu girl under the pretext of marriage. The accused then sexually exploited her multiple times after promising that he would marry her. He later abducted her, after which the victim's family filed a complaint at the Padra police station. A police team traced both the accused and the victim within 24 hours and brought them to the station for interrogation. The investigation confirmed that the accused had previously targeted other Hindu girls. As of the date of writing this report, the police had registered a case under the POCSO Act and other relevant sections. The investigation was ongoing, and police were examining the accused's social media accounts and mobile phone for further evidence.

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 - Brainwashed and/or groomed, with the tertiary category being - Rape and sexual assault/harassment, and Pattern of targeting Hindu minors. 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 Muslim man lured a minor Hindu girl into a relationship under the pretext of marriage for sexual exploitation. He raped her multiple times and then abducted her. It could be said that this incident could potentially be a crime of opportunity where the Hindu girl was simply accessible to the Muslim perpetrator; however, police investigations confirmed that the accused had a history of targeting and molesting Hindu girls, which proves that the religious identity of the victim was central to the crime. This was not an isolated incident or a crime of opportunity; instead, he was specifically targeting Hindu girls. The target wasn't just girls for sexual exploitation, but also the Hindu religious identity of the victim. Additionally, given that the victim was a minor, any notion of consent, for a relationship or marriage, is legally and ethically invalid under the POCSO Act, especially when the other partner is an adult. When the victim is a minor, the element of consent and genuine change of conscience is 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 their actions, and the Muslim perpetrator purposely targeted and exploited this vulnerability of the victims. Another important point to highlight is that the Muslim perpetrator targeted multiple Hindu girls. This pattern of selectively targeting Hindu girls reveals a broader campaign aimed at the exploitation of Hindu girls because of their religious identity. Such repeated, targeted acts against Hindu girls go beyond individual criminality and constitute a direct threat to the Hindu community, fuelling cycles of fear, distrust, and trauma. In this case, the pattern of singling out and targeting Hindu girls proves that the religious identity of the victims was central to the ordeal they faced; therefore, this case has been categorised as a religiously motivated hate crime. Disclaimer: It is important to clarify that the report does not specify the exact date when the victim's ordeal began. Therefore, for documentation purposes, we have recorded the date based on when the incident was reported in the media. Further, since it is mentioned that the accused had a history of targeting and molesting Hindu girls, the total number of girls who fell prey to his deceit is more than one; however, since only one victim had been identified, at the time of documenting this case, the victim count was recorded as 1.