Hindu woman abducted, subjected to sexual violence, and forcibly converted to Islam by Muslims

Case ID : e2753fb | Location : Ghazipur, Uttar Pradesh, India | Date of Incident : Thu, 4 March, 2021

Case ID : e2753fb

Ghazipur, Uttar Pradesh, India

4 March, 2021

Hindu woman abducted, subjected to sexual violence, and forcibly converted to Islam by Muslims

Predatory Proselytisation

Harassment, threats, coercion for conversion

Case Summary

In the Ghazipur area of Uttar Pradesh, a Hindu woman was abducted, gang-raped and forcibly converted to Islam by Muslims. The victim was subjected to sexual violence for a long period of time. According to media reports, on 5th March 2021, one of the Muslim accused, Haseen, son of Hashim, abducted the Hindu victim living in a village in Ghazipur and took her to a Muslim woman, Sanno's house in Lehdari of Kaushambi district, along with his Muslim associates Nawab and Mukhtar. There, the three gang-raped her. After Kaushambi, she was taken to Fatehpur, where she suffered the same treatment. She was then taken to and kept in Nooruddin's house in Andheri, Mumbai, where she was again gang-raped. The perpetrators also threatened to sell the Hindu victim. Following this, the Muslim perpetrators forcibly converted her to Islam through a Maulvi and changed her name to Sania. On the intervention of Bajrang Dal workers, Ghazipur police on the night of 9th September 2025 registered a case on behalf of the victim against the main accused Haseen, and others, namely, Nawab, Mukhtar, Sanno, Ibrahim, Nooruddin, Taj, Shan, Taj-Shaan's father, Farooq, Yasin, Aqeel Ahmed, Nazim, Mehndi and Haseena, wife of Mehdi Hasan, all residents of Khalilnagar Kotwali Fatehpur. The charges included kidnapping under conspiracy, gang rape, assault, threats, and offences under the UP Prohibition of Unlawful Conversion of Religion Act. Senior SI (Sub-Inspector) Harinath Singh and SI (Sub-Inspector) Himanshu Singh arrested the main accused, Haseen, son of Hashim and resident of Ghazipur, late at night on information provided by an informer. SO (Station Officer) Pramod Kumar Maurya stated that the names and addresses of the other accused would be traced, and all of them would be arrested and sent to jail soon. People from several places, including Fatehpur, Mumbai and Kaushambi, were involved in the crime. Police teams were formed for the arrests, and they were raiding suspicious locations.

Why it is Hate Crime ?

This case has been added to the tracker under the primary category- Predatory Proselytisation. 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. This case was a clear instance of a hate crime against a Hindu woman, targeted specifically because of her faith. The victim was abducted from her village and taken to different locations, where she was subjected to gang rape by the main Muslim perpetrator and his associates. This was not an isolated episode of sexual violence but a prolonged and sustained assault carried out over several years, beginning in 2021. The sexual violence inflicted upon the Hindu victim by the Muslim perpetrators was not for physical gratification alone. It was used as an instrument of coercion designed to break her spirit and force her into compliance with their demands. Such use of sexual violence as a weapon of subjugation exposed deep‑seated religious hostility towards her as a Hindu woman. The perpetrators went further by compelling her to undergo a religious conversion. She was forced to adopt Islam with the involvement of an Islamic cleric, and her name was changed to Sania. The use of a Maulvi, an Islamic cleric, in this process showed that the act was deliberate, organised and intended to erase her Hindu identity. This makes the assault far more than a crime of sexual exploitation; it was a systematic act of religious persecution. Forcibly converting a Hindu individual to Islam was a direct violation of her religious autonomy. Such forced conversions are rooted in hostility towards Hinduism, making this a religiously motivated offence. The case also established the collective and coordinated nature of the crime. Several Muslim men and women, alongside the cleric, formed a group that abducted, transported, raped and forced the victim into conversion. This proved it was not a random crime by individuals but a calculated and well‑organised effort by a Muslim group driven by religious hatred. By specifically targeting a Hindu woman for long‑term sexual abuse and proselytisation, the Muslim perpetrators demonstrated hostility towards her faith. The coerced abandonment of her religion and the forced adoption of Islam were acts aimed at destroying her cultural and religious identity. These instances of targeted and forced proselytisation stem from inherent hostility towards the victim's professed faith since Abrahamic faiths believe that any non-adherent to their faith is subject to being dehumanised till they convert, making it a religiously motivated crime against Hindus. Since this case meets multiple parameters of a religiously motivated attack against Hindus and their faith, it is being added to the hate crime database.