Hindu woman lured by Muslim youth who concealed identity as Hindu on Instagram, planned forced conversion
Lucknow, Uttar Pradesh, India 
19 March, 2026
Case Summary
A 19-year-old Hindu woman from Dindori, Madhya Pradesh, was groomed on Instagram by a Muslim youth named Syed Salamat Hussain from Balrampur, Uttar Pradesh, who concealed his Muslim identity and posed as a Hindu Central Reserve Police Force (CRPF) Commandant to gain her trust. He lured her to Lucknow under the false pretext of securing her employment and planned to transport her to Balrampur for financial extortion and forced religious conversion. Investigation further revealed that Salamat Hussain had carried out an identical grooming and conversion attempt on another woman in Pilibhit two years prior, for which he had been imprisoned, reflecting a deliberate and sustained pattern of predatory targeting of vulnerable women for religious conversion. According to reports, Syed Salamat Hussain concealed his Muslim identity and created a false persona as a Hindu Central Reserve Police Force Commandant named Sameer on Instagram. Using this false identity, he befriended the 19-year-old Hindu woman from Dindori, Madhya Pradesh, on the platform and cultivated her trust over an extended period. He then lured her to Lucknow under the false pretext of securing her employment in the city. His plan was to take her from Lucknow to Balrampur, where he intended to extort money from her and carry out her religious conversion. The Hindu woman boarded the Jabalpur-Lucknow Chitrakoot Express, travelling with Salamat Hussain, whom she knew only as Sameer, a Central Reserve Police Force Commandant. During the journey, train attendant Pawan Gupta from Raebareli entered coach M-1 and molested the Hindu woman. When she protested, Pawan Gupta fled from the scene. The Hindu woman's complaint about the molestation triggered a joint Government Railway Police and Railway Protection Force investigation on the train. During questioning, the Government Railway Police asked the Hindu woman who she was travelling with, to which she identified her companion as Sameer, a Central Reserve Police Force Commandant she had met on Instagram. This response deepened police suspicion. Upon questioning, Syed Salamat Hussain's true identity was established. Under sustained interrogation, Salamat Hussain admitted that he was not a Central Reserve Police Force Commandant, that he had cultivated the Hindu woman's trust under a false identity, and that he had planned to extort money from her and carry out her religious conversion. Interrogation also revealed that two years prior in Pilibhit, Salamat Hussain had similarly trapped another woman, attempted to convert her, and had been imprisoned following the registration of a First Information Report against him in that case. Police were actively investigating his connections to the Chhangur gang and his links with Dr Ramiz of King George's Medical University, Lucknow. A First Information Report was registered against Salamat Hussain at the Government Railway Police Charbagh on the Hindu woman's complaint under sections including kidnapping and other relevant charges. Given that the incident was connected to the Banda region, the Zero First Information Report was transferred to the Government Railway Police Banda for further investigation. Syed Salamat Hussain was arrested. Train attendant Pawan Gupta remained absconding, with police actively searching for him. Police confirmed that the matter was being investigated in depth.
Why it is Hate Crime ?
The primary category selected for this case is "Crimes against women in relationships and other sexual crimes". The sub-category here is "Man pretends to be Hindu". The tertiary categories are "Name changed" and "Pattern of targeting Hindu women". 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. Another sub-category for this case is- "Brainwashed and/or groomed", and within this, the tertiary category selected is- Pattern of targeting Hindu women. 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 primary category for this case is "Predatory Proselytisation". The first sub-category for this case is- Conversion/ attempts to convert by inducement. Predatory Proselytisation is not just limited to threat, harassment, force and violence, but it also has contours of stealth. In several cases, the Hindu victim is exploited to convert, with non-Hindus taking advantage of their poverty. In such cases, the Hindu victim who is suffering financially is offered monetary benefits, including lucrative offers for jobs, health treatment, education, etc, to induce the victim into changing his/her religion. In such cases, the religious identity of the victim and the aim to disenfranchise him from his faith form the heart of the crime. Also, taking advantage of and exploiting an individual’s economic vulnerabilities is widely acknowledged as exploitation, forms of which are often penalised by law. Such cases therefore are considered religiously motivated hate crimes since the victim’s religious identity forms the very heart of the crime itself. The other subcategory 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. One other sub-category for this case is "Proselytisation by grooming, brainwashing, manipulation or subtle indoctrination". The tertiary category here is "Pattern of targeting Hindus". 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 bears clear indicators of a religiously motivated hate crime as it involved deliberate deception, grooming, and a planned attempt to coerce a Hindu woman into religious conversion. The actions of the accused demonstrate a calculated effort to target the victim specifically because of her Hindu identity and to place her in a situation where her faith could be exploited and ultimately altered through manipulation and coercion. A key religious marker in this case is the concealment of religious identity by the accused. The perpetrator presented himself as a Hindu man and adopted a false identity associated with a respected national institution to gain the trust of the victim. This misrepresentation was not incidental but essential to the success of the grooming process. By posing as a Hindu, the accused bypassed the victim’s likely religious and social boundaries, allowing him to establish a relationship that would not have been possible had his true identity been disclosed. This demonstrates that the deception was specifically designed to target a Hindu woman by exploiting her trust within a shared religious identity. The grooming process itself reflects a pattern of predatory proselytisation. The accused built a relationship over time through social media, gradually gaining the victim’s confidence before isolating her from her familiar environment by luring her to another city under false pretences. Such grooming is a critical stage in coercive conversion cases, as it places the victim in a vulnerable position where pressure can be applied more effectively. The intention to transport her further to another location indicates a planned escalation toward control, isolation, and eventual coercion. Another significant religious marker is the explicit intent to carry out forced religious conversion. Conversion, in this context, involves the abandonment of one’s inherited Hindu identity and the adoption of another faith under pressure. The accused’s admission that he planned to convert the victim demonstrates that the relationship was not genuine but a means to achieve religious transformation through deceit and coercion. This establishes that the victim’s Hindu identity was central to the targeting and not incidental to the crime. The case is further aggravated by evidence of a repeated pattern of similar conduct by the accused. The prior instance in which he used similar methods to trap and attempt to convert another woman indicates that this was not an isolated act but part of a sustained pattern of targeting vulnerable women for religious conversion. Such repetition reflects a deliberate and systematic approach rather than an impulsive or personal act. The combination of identity concealment, grooming, planned isolation, and the intent to enforce religious conversion demonstrates that the crime was structured around exploiting the victim’s Hindu identity. The deception was used as a tool to entrap, the relationship was used as a mechanism of control, and the end objective was to compel a change in religious identity. Given the deliberate targeting of a Hindu woman through deception, the systematic grooming process, the clear intent to force religious conversion, and the existence of a repeated pattern of similar acts, this case displays clear markers of predatory proselytisation and coercion aimed at altering the victim’s faith. It therefore qualifies as a religiously motivated hate crime and has been recorded in the Hinduphobia Tracker database. Disclaimer: The Hinduphobia Tracker records incident dates based on when a crime occurred, or a victim's ordeal began, rather than when the media reported it. In this case, the exact date on which Syed Salamat Hussain began grooming the 19-year-old Hindu woman on Instagram is not confirmed in the sources. 17th March 2026 has been chosen as the indicative incident date as it represents the date on which the Government Railway Police control room received information about the molestation on the Jabalpur-Lucknow Chitrakoot Express, making it the earliest confirmed and documented date referenced in the sources. The Hindu woman's ordeal at the hands of Syed Salamat Hussain began significantly earlier than this date, given the extended period of grooming carried out on Instagram prior to her being lured to Lucknow. This was recorded for documentation purposes only.
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 0
- Adult 1
- Senior Citizen 0
- Unknown 0
Case Status
Arrested
Perpetrators Details
Perpetrators
Muslim Extremists
Perpetrators Range
One Person
Perpetrators Gender
male
Sources 
