Till a month-old CCTV footage surfaced last week, appearing to show six giggling girls putting a burqa on one of them, they were known to be a tight group. Neighbours and students of Class 12 in the same school in Moradabad, they would together walk to and from a tuition centre where they were all enrolled, preparing for NEET exams.
Now, after the filing of an FIR under the Uttar Pradesh Prohibition of Unlawful Conversion of Religion Act against the five Muslim girls in the group, at least one has been sent away to her grandparents’ place, while another has stopped going for tuitions. The families of the accused are hoping the matter will get resolved and put behind, for what they say it was – “a case of misunderstanding”.
The uncle of one of the accused girls says: “All the families met along with some local leaders on Sunday. Everyone agrees the girls were friends and that this was a mistake of judgment that the girls made in their childishness.”
The stringent UP Act was invoked after the family of the sole Hindu girl in the group alleged she was pressured by the others to wear a burqa while they were returning from tuition classes. Barring one girl who is 20, the rest are between the ages of 16 and 18 and minors.
Police officials said the matter is under investigation and that no arrests have been made so far. In case of “forcible conversion” of minors, women or SC/STs, the UP Act can involve punishment between three and 10 years, and a fine of at least ₹25,000.
The tuition classes that the six attended are held by a teacher from their school in Sahu Kunj, a Moradabad area with wide roads and predominantly Hindu households. It was a short walk from the neighbouring villages where the six live, both of which have a mixed population of the two communities.
Inspector Ashok Kumar, the investigating officer in the case, said: “The CCTV footage is from December 20, 2025. A burqa is visible in the footage, and we are investigating why the girls had an extra burqa. The FIR was registered on January 22 after the video began circulating on social media.”
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In the footage, all the girls are laughing as the Hindu girl, in a red shirt and black jeans, is handed a burqa. One of the girls is heard saying she will look good wearing it.
The complaint was filed by the Hindu girl’s brother, who runs a mobile phone shop, after seeing the video.
Rajeev Chaudhary, whose CCTV camera captured the incident, said residents in the area flagged what had happened to him. “Some women sitting outside mentioned that a Hindu girl was being made to wear a burqa. I then checked my CCTV footage and shared it with police. I don’t know how the video went viral,” he told The Indian Express.
Inspector Kumar said that they had recorded the statement of the Hindu girl, and were yet to question the five friends who are named in the FIR.
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In her statement, the Hindu girl has said the incident took place in a lane behind their tuition centre. She has claimed she was friends with only one of the other five girls, the one carrying the burqa.
While she has also alleged that the group encouraged her to wear the burqa, the uncle of one of the accused girls quoted above said the five had carried the burqa only to help their Hindu friend avoid being seen by her family as they were planning to go to a local eatery for snacks.
“My niece has told us that the Hindu girl’s brother forbade her from going anywhere else after tuitions. Since his shop is located on her way home, she was worried about being seen. The girls thought covering her with a burqa would help her avoid trouble at home,” the uncle said.
He added that since the case was registered, his niece has stopped attending school and has been sent to her maternal grandmother’s home to avoid trouble. They are hoping the case will get resolved for them to get her back.
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The family members of another accused girl also said the incident had been misunderstood and that there was no intention to pressure anyone or interfere with religious beliefs. A former village pradhan, the father of the girl said his daughter was being unfairly implicated simply because she appeared in the CCTV footage. “She was only present there. She did not force anyone to do anything,” he said. “We respect all religions. Women in our family wear sarees too on some occasions, and burqa is just a form of clothing for us. There was no religious agenda behind this.”
Since the board exams are close, the father said, he will send his daughter to school only for them now.
Additional Superintendent of Police, Moradabad, Kunwar Akash Singh said the police are examining all the versions carefully. “Preliminary inquiry indicates that the girls knew each other and studied together… We are investigating the allegations in detail. No arrests have been made so far.”
Since the case was filed, other allegations have been made, including that the Hindu girl was being “encouraged” to eat non-vegetarian food. “When I refused, they said gravy gravy kha lo, usmein kya hota hai (They said just eat the gravy, what’s in it),” she has told police in her statement. She has also said the friends would talk positively about Islam.
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The girl’s brother says the family had been worried about her “well-being” even before the video surfaced. “When she was in Class 11, she told us that her friends had asked her to eat non-veg. We told her to refuse them… They would also ask her to go on outings with them. We were always against their friendship.”
For now, since the video went viral, the brother added, “my sister has stopped going to tuitions”.
The tuition teacher, who has roughly 25 students in his class, distanced himself from the entire matter. He didn’t know anything about the six, he told The Indian Express.
