Case Summary

In Gopiganj, Bhadohi, Uttar Pradesh, a 16-year-old Hindu girl was kidnapped by Muslim men named Jabir Ali and Munawar Ali. The accused had previously enticed the girl with false promises of marriage. She was forcibly converted to Islam, and an obscene video of her was circulated online. The Hinduphobia Tracker has obtained the FIR about the incident. The complainant is the victim’s father, Sunil Kumar. According to his report, his 16-year-old daughter was kidnapped by Jabir Ali and Munawar Ali after they deceived her with false promises of marriage. Consequently, the family filed a case against the accused, and the trial was ongoing. According to the FIR, on 10th March 2025, Sunil's daughter appeared in court to provide her testimony, with her cross-examination scheduled for 12th March 2025. However, on 11th March 2025, while she was out in the morning, she was kidnapped again. Sunil conducted an extensive search but was unable to locate her. He stated that the accused had kidnapped her to pressure the family into a settlement in the ongoing court case. Sunil urged the police to register the report and take immediate action against the accused. A case was filed under Section 137(2) of the Bharatiya Nyaya Sanhita (BNS). According to media reports, the accused forcibly converted the minor girl, sexually exploited her, and made her obscene video go viral. The victim's family said that no substantial action was taken against the accused. They also faced continuous harassment and threats from the accused's family. In response, the family submitted a memorandum to the District Magistrate and Superintendent of Police, stating that if justice was not served, they would be compelled to take their own lives. They also sent a letter to Chief Minister Yogi Adityanath, pleading for justice.

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Why it is Hate Crime ?

This case has been added to the tracker under the primary category- Crime against women in relationships and other sexual crimes. Within this, the subcategory selected is- Brainwashed and/or Groomed. The tertiary categories selected are- 'Conversion of Minor' and '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. 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 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. This case is a clear instance of a religiously motivated hate crime against a Hindu girl. Firstly, the victim was a minor, and minors are inherently vulnerable to manipulation and coercion due to their age and lack of maturity. The Muslim accused exploited this vulnerability by deliberately manipulating and coercing the girl to leave her home, effectively kidnapping her under the false pretext of marriage. This tactic reveals a calculated effort rooted in religious animosity. The accused’s actions demonstrate a targeted attack on the girl’s Hindu identity, using deceit and coercion to disrupt her faith and family life. Following her abduction, she was forcibly converted to Islam, further underscoring the religious motive behind the crime. This pattern of luring, coercing, and forcibly converting a minor Hindu girl exemplifies a hate crime driven by religious prejudice and hostility. The obscene video of the victim was also circulated widely. The act of forcibly converting the girl and circulating her obscene video reveals the religiously motivated nature of the attack, as it involved the deliberate erasure of her Hindu identity under false pretences. Such actions are not random or isolated incidents but reflect deep-seated religious hatred aimed at undermining and humiliating the victim’s faith. The sexual exploitation and the distribution of an obscene video go beyond acts of violence—they are calculated tools of humiliation intended to disgrace and traumatise the Hindu girl and her family. This act is a continuation of the religious animosity evident throughout the crime, designed to inflict maximum harm on the victim’s dignity and community standing. Moreover, the girl was kidnapped again during court proceedings, and her family faced threats and harassment, which further highlights the ongoing religiously motivated hate campaign against them. These sustained acts of intimidation and violence are aimed at silencing the victim and her family, reinforcing the religious bias behind the crime. Given that this case meets the parameters of a religiously motivated crime, it is being added to the hate crime database. Disclaimer: Media reports do not specify the exact date when the victim's ordeal began. However, the FIR states the victim appeared on 10th March 2025 in the court, and the case was reported in the media on 12th March 2025. In the absence of a precise start date, 10th March 2025 is used as the indicative date of the incident. The Hinduphobia Tracker records the date of an incident based on when the victim’s ordeal began, rather than the date when the case is reported in the media.