Minor Hindu girl molested, forcefully taken to church and converted to Christianity
Mirzapur, Uttar Pradesh, India 
17 March, 2025
Case Summary
In Uttar Pradesh’s Mirzapur, a minor Hindu girl was subjected to harassment and forced conversion by a sub-inspector posted at Vindhyachal police station. The victim’s mother, in her complaint, said that her family was embroiled in a land dispute, and the accused police officer had first visited their house in connection with the same case. He took their mobile number and, for the past year, started visiting their home on various pretexts. He also started sending messages to the minor Hindu girl, Initially, he used to have casual conversations over WhatsApp. However, his behaviour changed over time. He tried to talk to the victim alone and sent obscene messages to her at night. He deleted those messages immediately after sending them to the victim. One day, the officer grabbed the victim's hand and took her away from the family. He pressured her to visit a church and convert her religion. When she resisted, he threatened to implicate the family in a gangster case. The victim, along with her family, approached the Superintendent of Police (SP) office and filed a complaint. She also provided screenshots of obscene photos and videos sent by the officer. The family had initially lodged a complaint with the Vindhyachal Station House Officer (SHO), but no action was taken. Finally, on March 18, the family approached the Superintendent of Police, seeking justice.
Why it is Hate Crime ?
The case has been added to the tracker under the prime category of- Predatory proselytisation. Under this, the first sub-category 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. The second sub-category relevant here is- Proselytisation by grooming, brainwashing, manipulation or subtle indoctrination, and within this, the tertiary categories selected are- Rape and sexual harassment 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. In this case, the Hindu victim said that she was molested and threatened by a police officer to go to church and convert to Christianity. Further, the victim and her family stated that the police officer tried to blackmail her into conversion by using her obscene pictures. He also threatened to implicate them in a gangster case when the minor Hindu victim resisted the conversion demand. The purpose of this physical torture and psychological pressure was to coerce the victim into abandoning her faith and accepting the alien faith, Christianity. The underlying motivation of predatory proselytisation, driven by animosity towards the victim's professed faith, was evident in this case. The perpetrators used violence and coercion to pressure the minor girl into converting, with the central aim of separating her from her Hindu identity. Given that religion was the primary motivation, this case has been classified as a hate crime. It is important to mention 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 Christian 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: While the accused also threatened the victim’s family, the primary victim— a minor Hindu girl— was directly subjected to coercion and torture. Therefore, we are considering the victim count as one.
Victim Details
Total Victim
1
Deceased
0
Gender
- Male 0
- Female 1
- Third Gender 0
- Unknown 0
Caste
- SC/ST 0
- OBC 0
- General 0
- Unknown 1
Age Group
- Minor 1
- Adult 0
- Senior Citizen 0
- Unknown 0
Case Status
Complaint filed
Perpetrators Details
Perpetrators
Christian Extremists
Perpetrators Range
One Person
Perpetrators Gender
male
Sources 
