Hindu girl lured into relationship, sexually exploited and pressured for religious conversion by Muslim man

Case ID : 30a75aa | Location : Lonavla, Maharashtra, India | Date of Incident : Mon, 23 March, 2026

Case ID : 30a75aa

Lonavla, Maharashtra, India

23 March, 2026

Hindu girl lured into relationship, sexually exploited and pressured for religious conversion by Muslim man

Crimes against women in relationships and other sexual crimes

Brainwashed and/or groomed

Rape and sexual assault/harassment

Forced conversion before marriage

Case Summary

In Lonavala, Maharashtra, a 19-year-old Hindu girl was lured into a relationship, sexually exploited and pressured for religious conversion by a Muslim man named Tausif. According to reports, the victim, who was studying at an engineering college, was lured into a relationship by the Muslim accused, Tausif, who was employed as a lab assistant at her engineering college. The interaction began through social media and gradually developed into a close personal relationship, where the accused presented himself as a bachelor. In order to gain her trust, the accused claimed that he would marry her, while concealing the fact that he was already married and the father of four children. As the relationship progressed, Tausif took the victim to a resort in the Pawna Nagar area, where he staged a wedding-like setting to reinforce the illusion of commitment and secure her trust, after which he sexually exploited her. The deception came to light when the victim discovered his marital status and existing family, which caused significant distress. Following this, the nature of the interaction shifted from emotional manipulation to coercion and intimidation, where the accused imposed conditions for continuing the relationship. He explicitly stated that she would have to convert to Islam and abandon her Hindu faith if she wished to remain with him. Alongside this, he exerted pressure through threats and also misappropriated approximately ₹42,000 from the victim’s scholarship funds. Upon realising the extent of the deception and coercion, the victim approached the authorities. The Lonavala Rural Police registered a case against Tausif under relevant sections pertaining to cheating, criminal intimidation, and financial fraud, and initiated an investigation into the matter.

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 - Brainwashed and/or groomed, with the tertiary category being - 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 sub-category 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 the 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 has been added to the tracker because a 19-year-old Hindu girl was lured into a relationship, sexually exploited and pressured for religious conversion by the Muslim accused, Tausif. Firstly, the accused deceived the victim by concealing his marital status and the fact that he was already the father of four children. He presented himself as an unmarried man and promised marriage, thereby drawing her into a relationship built entirely on false pretences. These exploitations were not random acts of crime; rather, they functioned as religiously motivated tools aimed at humiliating and dominating a Hindu girl because of her faith. The target was not the victim as an individual, but her Hindu identity, as he later pressured her for conversion. The specific focus on her Hindu identity in the commission of these acts highlights the religious hatred underlying the crime, making it a religiously motivated offence. Secondly, after the truth about his existing marriage came to light, the accused began exerting pressure on the victim to convert to Islam as a condition for continuing the relationship. In Islam, marriage to a non-Muslim partner is prohibited, which was why she was pressured for religious conversion. This shows that the Muslim perpetrator specifically targeted the Hindu victim for sexual exploitation and religious conversion. Often in such cases, sexual exploitation serves a dual purpose: physical subjugation and religious humiliation. The intention was to break the victim down, emotionally, physically, and spiritually, so that she could be converted. This was not random; it was systematic, targeted, and rooted in religious animosity. Thirdly, pressuring a Hindu individual to discard her religious faith and embrace another was a direct attack on her religious identity and dignity. It was not a matter of personal choice; it was coercion rooted in hostility towards the victim's Hindu identity. Such an attempt reflects religious animosity because the act was not simply about personal differences but about erasing the victim’s Hindu faith, making it a religiously motivated crime. Such actions stem from inherent hostility towards the victim's professed faith since Abrahamic faiths believe that any non-adherent to the faith is subject to being dehumanised till they convert. Such acts were not merely personal crimes; they were rooted in a desire to dominate and erase the religious identity of the victim. Since such predatory actions stem from doctrinal animosity towards the Hindu faith and its adherents, this case is being documented as a religiously motivated hate crime. Disclaimer: The Hinduphobia Tracker records incidents based on when an event occurred or when the victim's ordeal began. It is important to clarify that none of the media sources covering this case has specified the exact date when the victim came into contact with the accused. Therefore, for documentation purposes, we have recorded the date based on when the incident was reported in the media, 23 March 2026.