Minor Hindu girl in Kanpur lured and trapped into relationship by Muslim youth posing as Hindu

Case ID : ef65411 | Location : Kanpur, Uttar Pradesh, India | Date of Incident : Wed, 11 June, 2025

Case ID : ef65411

Kanpur, Uttar Pradesh, India

11 June, 2025

Minor Hindu girl in Kanpur lured and trapped into relationship by Muslim youth posing as Hindu

Crimes against women in relationships and other sexual crimes

Brainwashed and/or groomed

Family claims grooming

Man pretends to be Hindu

Name Changed

Case Summary

In Kanpur, Uttar Pradesh, a 16-year-old Hindu girl was lured into a relationship and kidnapped by a Muslim youth named Tasub alias Owais, who posed as a Hindu. According to the reports, Tasub, a 22-year-old Muslim man, was stalking the minor Hindu girl for a long time. He befriended the minor girl by pretending to be a Hindu, using the name 'Tashu'. He slowly lured and manipulated her into a relationship. Her father said that Tasub brainwashed her to the point that she started going against her parents. Over time, he isolated her emotionally to the extent that she began defying her parents and refused to listen to any reasoning. On the night of June 12, 2025, the minor girl, under the influence of Tasub, mixed sleeping pills in the food of her family members. The girl’s father later reported that everyone in the house had felt disoriented and groggy in the morning. She also stole Rs. 10,000 from her house before running away with Tasub. Tasub then took the girl to the Jhankarkati bus stand and was planning to take her to Ahmedabad. They took an autorickshaw to the central station. However, the autorickshaw driver, associated with Bajrang Dal, found the conversation between the two suspicious. He contacted the local Bajrang Dal members and diverted the auto to the police station, where both were handed over to the authorities. Upon questioning, it was revealed that the Muslim youth had been stalking the girl for a long time and had plotted to take her away. The victim's father also said that he feared that her daughter would be sold or trafficked. As of the date of writing this report, the accused was arrested by the police, and the investigation was ongoing. The girl was handed over to the family.

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: - Man pretends to be Hindu, with the tertiary category being: - Name changed. When a non-Hindu man pretends to be a Hindu to deceive a Hindu woman into a relationship, the act is seen as triggered by malafide intentions. In some cases, the woman eventually accepts the man’s original religious identity and converts after the man’s identity is revealed. These cases could be argued as cases of religious brainwashing and a result of the pressure a woman feels after getting into a relationship with a man. The woman, it can be argued, also changed her religious identity because of the stigma she believes she might face if she chooses to walk out of a deceptive relationship. However, for the purpose of documenting hate crimes, the cases in this subcategory are limited to those where there is explicit violence aimed at religious conversion against the wishes of the victim (force-feeding beef, blackmailing with intimate videos, rape on refusal to convert, etc), or if the woman herself complains of the man’s religious deception. In such cases, it is established that the deception of the non-Hindu man had a specific aim of religious conversion or targeting of the victim due to her Hindu religious identity, therefore, making it a religiously motivated hate crime. The other sub-category relevant here is: - Brainwashed and/or groomed, with the tertiary category being: - Family claims grooming. 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 minor Hindu girl was lured, manipulated, and trapped into a relationship by a Muslim man who deliberately pretended as a Hindu. His malicious intent was evident from the outset, as he sought to befriend the Hindu girl by deliberately concealing his Muslim identity. This itself is a clear manifestation of bias and malicious intent towards the victim's religion. By concealing his true identity, he exploited her trust, targeting her under false pretences. This indicates a premeditated intent to manipulate her based on her religious background. In cases like these, the tactic of adopting a false Hindu identity to manipulate and "ensnare" a Hindu individual is not just an act of personal betrayal but can also be interpreted as an expression of disdain or disregard for Hinduism and its customs that reflects a deeper animosity towards Hindus and their beliefs. Furthermore, the girl was so thoroughly brainwashed by the accused that she ended up drugging her entire family and stealing ₹10,000 to run away with him. She was completely under his influence, emotionally and psychologically. Often in such cases, minor Hindu girls are targeted by the Muslim adult not because of love or a genuine relationship but for sexual exploitation, religious conversion or trafficking, which even the victim's father rightfully feared. The deliberate targeting of a minor Hindu girl through grooming, emotional manipulation, and religious deception reflects a calculated and ideologically driven strategy rooted in religious hatred. By weaponising trust to sever the victim from her family, faith, and identity, the perpetrator exploited her innocence in a manner that goes beyond betrayal; it constitutes a religiously motivated hate crime, where the victim’s Hindu identity was central to the 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 and the Muslim perpetrator purposely targeted and exploited this vulnerability of the victim. Since this case exemplifies the use of coercion and manipulation to achieve religious conversion, it is a blatant act of religious hate, which is why it has been documented here in the hate tracker. Disclaimer: It is important to clarify that the report does not specify the exact date when the girl's ordeal began, but it mentions that the accused lured her away on 12th June, 2025. Since this is the earliest date mentioned, we are considering this as when the victim's ordeal began and using this as the incident date.