Hindu woman lured into a relationship and assaulted by Muslim youth hiding behind false Hindu identity; pressured to convert after truth revealed
Bhopal, Madhya Pradesh, India 
29 March, 2026
Case Summary
A 24-year-old Hindu woman from Bhopal, Madhya Pradesh was deceived into a relationship by a Muslim youth named Shadab who concealed his Muslim identity and introduced himself as Shashank, a Hindu name, on social media. He subsequently lured her to Gwalior under false pretences, sexually assaulted her, made repeated false promises of marriage to continue the physical relationship, and upon discovery of his true identity subjected her to pressure to convert to Islam. Shadab contacted the Hindu woman on social media the previous year, introducing himself as Shashank and subsequently using multiple other Hindu names during their conversations to sustain the false Hindu identity. After gaining her trust through sustained social media contact under false Hindu names, he lured her to Gwalior under false pretences. Upon her arrival in Gwalior, Shadab forcibly assaulted her. He then made a promise of marriage and used this promise to continue engaging in physical relations with her on subsequent occasions. When the Hindu woman pressed him on the matter of marriage, Shadab began evading and making excuses. It was during this period that the Hindu woman discovered that his true name was not Shashank but Shadab, revealing the sustained identity deception that had formed the foundation of the entire relationship. After his true identity was discovered, Shadab subjected her to pressure to convert to Islam. Distressed by the discovery of Shadab's true identity and his subsequent conversion pressure, the Hindu woman filed a complaint at Ashoka Garden police station in Bhopal. Police confirmed that the incident had taken place in Gwalior, accordingly registered a complaint and transferred the matter to Gwalior for further investigation. Gwalior police were to conduct the investigation going forward.
Why it is Hate Crime ?
The primary category 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 category here is "Name changed" 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 here is "Brainwashed and/or groomed". The tertiary categories here are "Rape and sexual assault/harassment" and "Victim says she was brainwashed/groomed". 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. One other sub-category for this case 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. Another sub-category that this case qualifies for is "Assault or threat upon refusal to convert". When Hindu women are in a relationship with non-Hindu men, there are cases where the woman faces threats or assault after she refuses to convert and change her religious identity owing to pressure/force by the non-Hindu man. Such relationships may be consensual with the religious identity of the non-Hindu man known to the victim. Somewhere along the relationship, the non-Hindu man starts pressurizing the Hindu woman to convert to Islam and upon her refusal, assaults or threatens the victim. Such cases are driven by specific religious motivations and against the religious identity of the victim and are therefore qualified as hate crimes. Cases where the Hindu woman converts to Islam and does not file a complaint about the force or threat, are not considered a part of the hate tracker, even though, it may be argued that the woman was brainwashed or threatened to convert to Islam. This case can be considered a religiously motivated hate crime because the entire relationship was built on deliberate identity deception that targeted a Hindu woman. The accused did not approach the victim using his real identity. Instead, he introduced himself with Hindu names and maintained this false identity over a period of time to gain her trust. This was not a casual lie but a sustained and calculated act. By presenting himself as Hindu, he removed the natural barriers that would exist in such a relationship and made it easier to establish emotional and social acceptance. The deception shows that religious identity was consciously used as a tool to target the victim. The significance of this becomes clearer when the sequence of events is examined. After gaining her trust, he lured her to another city under false pretences and sexually assaulted her. He then continued the relationship by making repeated promises of marriage. These promises were made in the context of an identity that was itself fabricated, which means the consent obtained from the victim was based on false information. The turning point came when the victim discovered his real identity. It was at this stage that the nature of the relationship shifted, and she was subjected to pressure to convert to Islam. This progression is important. The initial deception enabled access and control, and once that control was established, it was followed by attempts to impose a change in her religious identity. The pattern here is not of an isolated act but of a sequence where identity concealment, exploitation, and conversion pressure are connected. The use of multiple Hindu names, the sustained false identity, and the timing of the conversion pressure together indicate that religion was not incidental but central to how the crime was carried out. Taken together, the deliberate impersonation of a Hindu identity, the exploitation of trust built on that identity, and the subsequent pressure to convert establish that the victim was targeted through her religious identity. For this reason, the case is being documented as a religiously motivated hate crime in the tracker. 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 Shadab first made contact with the Hindu woman on social media under his false Hindu identity is not confirmed in the sources. The article was published on March 29, 2026, and the sources confirm that the relationship began the previous year, placing the start of the Hindu woman's ordeal in early 2025. Therefore, March 29, 2025, has been chosen as the indicative incident date, with March 29 being the publication date and 2025 being the confirmed approximate year in which Shadab first contacted the Hindu woman under his false Hindu identity of Shashank and began the sustained campaign of identity deception, sexual exploitation, and subsequent conversion pressure. 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
Complaint registered
Perpetrators Details
Perpetrators
Muslim Extremists
Perpetrators Range
One Person
Perpetrators Gender
male
Sources 
