Dalit Hindu girl abducted, forcibly converted to Islam; family subjected to casteist slurs by the Muslim man
Bareilly, Uttar Pradesh, India 
17 May, 2025
Case Summary
In Bareilly, a Dalit Hindu girl was abducted and converted to Islam by a Muslim man named Guddu and his friends. According to the complaint filed by the victim’s father (who belongs to the Scheduled caste), the incident took place on May 18 when the main accused, Guddu, along with his brothers, arrived at their home and lured the girl away. When a woman intervened to prevent the abduction, she was also threatened with physical assault by the accused. Furthermore, when the victim’s father and his companions were on their way to the house of the accused to rescue the daughter, they were surrounded by the accused and his friends. The accused not only physically assaulted them but also hurled caste-based abuses at them. The accused also stated that they had already converted the girl’s religion and married her. As of the date of writing this report, a case has been registered against Guddu, Nazim, Asif, Rashid, and Arif, all of whom are residents of Manona, and the investigation was ongoing.
Why it is Hate Crime ?
This case has been added to the tracker under multiple categories. The first category selected here is: - Attack not resulting in death. Within it, the sub-category selected is: - Attacked for opposing radicals or trying to save victim. In several cases, Hindus are attacked for opposing religiously motivated crimes being committed against a fellow Hindu or simply for voicing an opinion opposing radical elements, who either have in the past or continue to persecute Hindus. In such cases, the initial attack against the victim, against which the Hindu was trying to defend the victim, would also need to be classified as a religiously motivated hate crime. Since the initial crime itself was religiously motivated and the subsequent crime of attempting to save the victim or speaking against the radical elements ends up inviting a violent attack, it would also be classified as a religiously motivated hate crime under this category. The second primary category selected here is: - Hate speech against Hindus. Within it, the sub-category selected is: - Anti-Hindu slurs, mocking faith. Anti-Hindu slurs and the deliberate mocking of the Hindu faith owing to religious animosity involve the usage of derogatory terms, stereotypes, or offensive references to religious practices, symbols, or figures. One of the common anti-Hindu slurs used against Hindus is “cow-worshipper” and “cow piss drinker”. The intention of using this term is to demean and mock Hindus as a group and their religious beliefs since Hindus consider the cow holy. Additionally, some symbols and the slurs attached to them have a historical context that exacerbates the insult, hate, stereotyping, dehumanisation and oppression against Hindus. Cow worship has been used for centuries to denigrate Hindus, insult their faith and oppress Hindus specifically as a religious group. There has been overwhelming documentation about how cow slaughter has been used to persecute Hindus with cow meat being thrown in temples and places of worship. There has also been overwhelming documentation where cow meat (beef) has been force-fed to Hindus to either forcefully convert them to Islam or denigrate their faith. Apart from cow worship, the Swastika – which holds deep religious significance for the Hindus – has also been misinterpreted and distorted to use as a slur against Hindus. Similarly, the worship of the Shivling has been used by supremacist ideologies and religions to denigrate Hindus owing to religious animosity. Such slurs and denigration stem out of inherent animosity and hate towards Hindus and their faith, therefore, it is categorised as hate speech targeted at Hindus specifically owing to their religious identity. The third primary category selected here is: - Predatory proselytisation. Within it, the sub-category selected is: - Proselytisation by grooming, brainwashing, manipulation or subtle indoctrination, with the tertiary category being: - Family claims grooming and Conversion of minor. Religious brainwashing essentially means the often subtle and forcible indoctrination to induce someone to give up their religious beliefs to accept contrasting regimented ideas. Religious grooming or brainwashing also involves propaganda and manipulation. It involves the systematic effort, driven by religious malice and indoctrination, to persuade “non-believers’ to accept allegiance, command, or doctrine to and of a contrasting faith. Cases of such grooming or brainwashing are far more nuanced than direct threats, coercion, inducement and violence. In such cases, it is often seen that there is repeated, subtle and continual manipulation of the victim to induce disaffection towards their own faith and acceptance of the contrasting faith of the perpetrator. While subtle indoctrination is widely acknowledged as predatory, an element which is often understated in such conversions or the attempts of such conversion is the role of loyalty and trust which might develop between the perpetrator and the victim. Fiduciary relationships are often abused to affect such religious conversion. For example, an educator transmitting religious doctrine of a competing faith to a Hindu student. The Hindu student is likely to accept what the teacher is transmitting owing to existence of the fiduciary relationship. The exploitation of the fiduciary relationship to religiously indoctrinate victims would also be included in this category. Since the underlying animosity towards the victim’s faith forms the basis of predatory proselytization, such cases are considered religiously motivated hate crimes. This case has been added to the tracker due to several critical factors that align with the defined hate crime categories. Firstly, the victim's family, who belong to the Scheduled Caste community, were subjected to casteist slurs by the Muslim accused and his associates. They were also physically assaulted while they were trying to rescue the abducted girl. This directly falls under the sub-category of "Attacked for opposing radicals or trying to save a victim." This fits the pattern where Hindus are targeted by Muslims for intervening in or saving victims from forced conversions or grooming. The violence was not only an attempt to silence dissent but also to reinforce communal dominance. The victim's father also stated that his daughter was lured by the Muslim accused, who then converted her, further underscoring the religious and communal nature of the whole act. Rather than respecting the girl's religion, he chose to convert her, showing his disdain towards Hindu faith. In Islam, marriage to a non-Muslim is prohibited, which is why conversion, by hook or by crook, often becomes a prerequisite. This is not about personal choice or mutual respect, but about religious supremacy and the refusal to accept a Hindu identity. Even when the victim’s family tried to save her, they were met with threats and violence, showing how any resistance to such acts is brutally suppressed. In this context, the conversion is not a matter of free will, but a predatory act driven by an underlying rejection of the girl’s Hindu identity and faith. This religious animosity is further evident in the use of caste-specific slurs during the confrontation with the victim’s father. It can be argued that a caste-specific slur is aimed at the micro identity of the people belonging to the Dalit section of the Hindu community and not the Hindu identity itself. However, as far as Abrahamic religions are concerned, the micro identities of caste, region, and language are secondary. It is the religious identity that drives the animosity of the perpetrator against the Hindu victim. In this case, while the accused hurled casteist abuse at the victim's father, the animosity was driven by his animosity towards Hinduism and Hindus. This layered targeting, religious grooming, forced conversion, caste-based humiliation, and violent retaliation against those resisting radical elements qualify this incident as a religiously motivated hate crime against Hindus.
Case Status
Complaint registered
Perpetrators Details
Perpetrators
Muslim Extremists
Perpetrators Range
From 2 To 5
Perpetrators Gender
male
Sources 
