Minor Hindu girl lured into relationship, murdered for refusing conversion by Muslim man in Jamshedpur, Jharkhand

Case ID : e275033 | Location : Jamshedpur, Jharkhand, India | Date of Incident : Sun, 11 May, 2025

Case ID : e275033

Jamshedpur, Jharkhand, India

11 May, 2025

Minor Hindu girl lured into relationship, murdered for refusing conversion by Muslim man in Jamshedpur, Jharkhand

Crimes against women in relationships and other sexual crimes

Brainwashed and/or groomed

Conversion of minor

Murder upon refusal to convert

Case Summary

In Jogi Sol village of Jamshedpur, Jharkhand, a 16-year-old minor Hindu girl was lured into a relationship and murdered for refusing to convert by a 22-year-old Muslim lover, Abdul Qasim. According to reports, the minor Hindu girl was a student of Class 9 and a resident of Patnaik Sol. According to family members and locals, she was lured and abducted by the Muslim accused about three months before her murder and taken to Jogi Sol village. During this time, the accused was constantly pressuring the minor girl to convert to Islam. It was reported that the accused lured the minor girl into a relationship, which itself is a crime under the POCSO Act. On the day of the incident, at around 4 am, an argument broke out between the two over the matter of conversion, during which Qasim, in a fit of rage, banged the victim's head against a wall, which led to her death. The incident caused widespread unrest in the village, with villagers immediately informing the police. Police arrived on the spot, arrested the accused, and sent the victim's body for post-mortem examination. As of the date of writing this report, the investigation was ongoing.

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. With it, the sub-category selected is - Brainwashed and/or groomed, with the tertiary category being - 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. The second sub-category selected is - Murder upon refusal to convert. When Hindu women are in a relationship with non-Hindu men, there are cases where the woman is forced to convert her religion and upon her refusal to do so, the non-Hindu partner murders the victim. 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 pressuring the Hindu woman to convert. In some of these cases, the association could be non-consensual as well or, the religious identity of the non-Muslim man could be previously unknown to the Hindu victim. In such cases, the Hindu woman is first pressurized to change her religion by the non-Hindu man. The pressure could involve threats and/or violence. The trigger to murdering the woman in these cases is her refusal to comply and change her religion under threat and/or force. Such cases are driven by specific religious motivations and against the religious identity of the victim and are therefore qualified as hate crimes. This case has been added to the tracker because a minor Hindu girl was murdered for refusing to convert to Islam by the Muslim accused. Typically, in such situations, the Hindu girls are often led to believe that their faith would not be an obstacle to their relationship. In this case, the accused was constantly pressuring the minor girl to convert, and when she refused, she was murdered. Her refusal to embrace Islam became the central issue that provoked the Muslim perpetrator's violent reaction. This act is not merely a gruesome crime but an extreme and violent manifestation of religiously motivated hate, deeply rooted in religious intolerance and bigotry. It represents a symbolic attempt to erase her identity as a Hindu woman who courageously resisted forced conversion. Such violent actions are brutal efforts to impose religious conformity, showing a complete disregard for the victim's religious freedom and her right to practice her faith. The use of such extreme violence to enforce religious affinity underscores the perpetrator's profound hatred and intolerance toward the victim's faith and beliefs. These actions by the Muslim perpetrator stemmed 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 or having a relationship, and the Muslim perpetrator purposely targeted and exploited this vulnerability of the victim. Furthermore, having a relationship with a minor girl is a crime under the POCSO Act, especially when one partner is an adult. 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. In this context, the testimony of the family holds considerable weight. Disclaimer - Media reports confirm that the victim was lured and abducted by the accused three months before her murder, though no exact date or month is provided. Thus, to document this case, we have used an indicative date—May 12, 2025—as a placeholder to represent the beginning of her suffering. While media coverage of the incident emerged on August 12, 2025, the Hinduphobia Tracker records the incident based on when the victim’s ordeal began, not when it was reported.