Case Summary

In Aligarh, Uttar Pradesh, a Hindu girl was lured into a relationship and subsequently sexually exploited by a Muslim man named Asif. The accused forced the victim to convert to Islam and marry him in a Nikah ceremony. He also circulated an obscene video of the girl and threatened to take her away to Syria. The Hinduphobia Tracker managed to get the FIR of this case. According to this, the accused would also abuse and harass the Hindu victim everywhere she went. The accused, Asif from Tappal, trapped the victim in a romantic relationship. Following this, he exploited her sexually and created an obscene video of the act. The girl stated that after this, she was pressured to convert and marry him (Nikah). When she refused, her obscene video was made viral on Instagram by Asif. Even the girl's father stated that the accused had circulated the video on social media fifteen days prior and was pressuring his daughter to convert and marry him. When she refused, the accused threatened to kill her and kidnap her, and also threatened to send her to Syria. On 19th August 2025, her father filed a complaint at the police station, but the police did not register a report at that time. Following this, on 20th August 2025, at 9:30 am, Hindu Rashtra Sena district president Dharampal Sharma, Gau Raksha team district in-charge Pankaj Pandit, and other Hindu organisation workers visited the victim's house. They spoke to the Tappal police station in charge, Arun Kumar, after which a report was registered against the accused. The Tappal police station officer confirmed that a report had been filed following the complaint and that further action was underway. Hindu activist Pankaj Pandit stated that if the accused, Asif, was not apprehended promptly, a protest would be organised.

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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- Brainwashed and/or Groomed. The tertiary category selected is- Rape and sexual assault/harassment. 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 other subcategory selected is- Forced conversion before marriage. The tertiary category selected is- Forced to do Nikah. In such cases, a non-Hindu man is in a relationship with a Hindu woman when the pressure to convert her religion begins to manifest. In such cases, typically, two patterns emerge. First, when the relationship is consensual, and the religious identity of the perpetrator is known to the Hindu woman in the relationship, however, at some point during the relationship, the non-Hindu man starts to force the victim to convert her religion and give up her Hindu religious identity. The second is when the woman gets into a marriage with the man pretending to share her faith. Later, when the truth is revealed, the man starts pressuring the woman to convert her religion and give up her religious identity. In both the situations, the methods used to force the victim to convert her religion often revolve around force-feeding beef, forcing her to wear hijab, forcing her to read the Kalma or even pressurizing the victim to do ‘Nikah’, which is marriage under Islamic law, with a prerequisite being conversion to Islam. Cases where a Hindu woman consensually converts to Islam in a relationship will be left out of the hate crime database, even though it could be argued in several cases that the conversion was a result of religious brainwashing. The other subcategory selected is- Blackmailed to convert. When Hindu women are in a relationship with non-Hindu men, there are cases where the woman is blackmailed to convert her religion, owing to her religious identity of being a Hindu. Such relationships may be consensual with the religious identity of the non-Hindu man known to the victim, however, there could be cases where the relationship is not consensual and the non-Hindu man starts blackmailing a Hindu woman to convert her religion. In these cases, it is often seen that the Hindu woman is blackmailed with intimate photos and/or videos, threats of harm to her or her family, threats of violence etc. Such cases are driven by specific religious motivations and against the religious identity of the victim and are therefore qualified as hate crimes. 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. This case stands as a clear example of a religiously motivated crime. In this instance, the Muslim accused did not conceal his identity while pursuing a relationship with the Hindu victim. The nature of their relationship demonstrated that the Hindu victim was made to believe that her religious identity would not be a barrier to their romantic involvement. Despite this openness, the Hindu girl was targeted with the underlying intention of coercing her into converting to Islam. The accused first exploited her sexually and created obscene recordings during the act, demonstrating a calculated approach to trapping the victim and using her vulnerability for religious conversion. Such deliberate targeting makes clear that the crime was rooted in religious intent rather than random violence or personal dispute. Secondly, the accused escalated the coercion by persistently pressuring the victim to convert to Islam and marry him according to Islamic rites. The forcible nature of this demand was intrinsically rooted in religious animosity, directly violating the Hindu victim’s fundamental rights and religious autonomy. Coercion to abandon one’s faith and embrace another under threat and manipulation is not simply an act of personal aggression; it is a direct attack on religious liberty and the dignity of the victim. Such behaviour displays deep-seated animosity towards the Hindu identity and confirms the religiously motivated basis of the crime. When the victim resisted the conversion demands, the accused used the obscene videos as weapons of blackmail. Upon her refusal to convert and submit to his demands, he circulated the videos publicly online, intending to punish and humiliate her for retaining her Hindu identity. This act of blackmail and public shaming was designed to inflict further psychological torment, break her spirit, and reinforce his coercive efforts to make her abandon her faith. Here, religious coercion was compounded by the use of humiliation and cyber abuse, underscoring the targeted nature of the attack. Moreover, the accused threatened to kill, kidnap, and take the victim to Syria, a country that has seen widespread radical Islamist violence. This threat signalled a further escalation, not only intending to force her into Islam but also to expose her to environments characterised by radicalisation and Islamic extremism. It reflected a deep and dangerous level of hostility towards her Hindu identity, aiming not just for conversion but for the complete erasure of her Hindu identity, making it a religiously motivated crime. Furthermore, the acts of issuing murder and kidnapping threats add up to the coercive attempts to strip her Hindu identity, making the religiously motivated nature behind the act even more evident. Based on the FIR filed by the victim’s father, the accused repeatedly threatened, abused, and dehumanised the Hindu victim, punishing her for resisting religious conversion. Given that this case meets the parameters of a religiously motivated crime, it is being added to the hate crime database. Disclaimer: Media reports did not specify when the victim's ordeal began. However, the FIR states that the accused circulated her obscene video fifteen days prior to the police complaint on 19th August 2025. Therefore, for documentation purposes, 4th August 2025 is being used as the indicative date of the incident, although media coverage occurred on 21st August 2025. The Hinduphobia Tracker records the date when the victim's ordeal began, rather than when it is reported in the media.