Hindu woman raped, forced to convert to Islam, assaulted and blackmailed on refusal by Muslim man in Saharanpur, Uttar Pradesh
Saharanpur, Uttar Pradesh, India 
21 February, 2021
Case Summary
A Hindu married woman in Gangoh, Saharanpur, Uttar Pradesh, was subjected to prolonged sexual violence, blackmail, and pressure to convert her religion by a Muslim man known to her. She endured repeated abuse over several years and was threatened with harm to her children and public humiliation. The violence escalated when she resisted religious conversion. The Hindu woman knew the Muslim man as her former neighbour. Around five years earlier, he entered her home and raped her. During the assault, he recorded explicit videos. He used these videos to silence her and threatened to kill her and harm her children if she spoke about the abuse. Over time, the Muslim man continued to sexually exploit her. He repeatedly used the threat of releasing the videos to maintain control. The Hindu woman remained silent due to fear, social stigma, and concern for her family’s safety. This allowed the abuse to continue over an extended period. The Muslim man later began pressuring her to convert to Islam and marry him through nikah, an Islamic marriage ceremony. He threatened severe consequences if she refused. On 22 February 2026, he forcibly took her to an isolated location, verbally abused her, and physically assaulted her. He again threatened to release the videos and destroy her life if she did not agree to convert. The Hindu woman faced continuous mental and physical harassment. The threats, coercion, and violence were directly linked to forcing her to abandon her religion. After enduring years of abuse, she decided to seek help and take action against the Muslim perpetrator. The Hindu woman filed a written complaint at the local police station against the Muslim man, identified as a government school teacher. The police registered the case and began an investigation based on her complaint. Hindu community members and local organisations also submitted representations demanding strict action. At the time of writing this report, the matter remained under investigation, and further legal proceedings were ongoing.
Why it is Hate Crime ?
This case has been added to the tracker under the primary category- Crime against women in relationships and other sexual crimes. The subcategory selected is- Brainwashed and/or Groomed. The tertiary category selected is- 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 subcategory selected is- Forced conversion before marriage. The tertiary category selected is- Forced to do Nikah. 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. The other subcategory selected 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. The other subcategory selected is- Blackmailed to convert. When Hindu women are in a relationship with non-Hindu men, there are cases where the woman is blackmailed to convert her religion, owing to her religious identity of being a Hindu. Such relationships may be consensual with the religious identity of the non-Hindu man known to the victim, however, there could be cases where the relationship is not consensual and the non-Hindu man starts blackmailing a Hindu woman to convert her religion. In these cases, it is often seen that the Hindu woman is blackmailed with intimate photos and/or videos, threats of harm to her or her family, threats of violence etc. Such cases are driven by specific religious motivations and against the religious identity of the victim and are therefore qualified as hate crimes. This case was a clear instance of a religiously motivated hate crime because a Hindu woman was repeatedly raped by her Muslim neighbour, who recorded obscene videos of her and used them to blackmail her into continuous and prolonged sexual exploitation. The victim was also forced to convert to Islam and marry the Muslim neighbour through a nikah ceremony, which is an Islamic marriage ceremony, as demanded by the perpetrator. The accused severely assaulted, threatened, and blackmailed the victim to coerce her into religious conversion. Taken together, these actions clearly showed that the violence was not only sexual in nature but also driven by religious animosity, making it a clear case of a religiously motivated hate crime. The Hindu woman was raped multiple times by the Muslim perpetrator, who exploited his position as her neighbour to gain access and trust. He used the familiarity of being a neighbour to lower her guard, then violated that trust by forcefully barging into her home and raping her. Considering that he later insisted she convert to Islam and marry him through nikah, it became evident that he used the neighbourly relationship as a tool to entrap and dominate her. The rape was not merely for sexual gratification; in light of the later pressure for conversion, it also revealed an intention to overpower and subjugate a Hindu woman because of her religious identity, making the sexual violence itself an expression of religiously motivated hatred. The accused used obscene videos and photos of the victim, recorded while raping her, to further exploit her sexually over a prolonged period. This ongoing blackmail weaponised her vulnerability as a Hindu woman, turning sexual violence into a tool to humiliate, degrade, and control her. By repeatedly subjecting her to abuse while holding these recordings over her, the perpetrator not only violated her bodily integrity but also attacked her dignity as a Hindu woman, reinforcing the hate-driven nature of his crimes and marking them clearly as a hate crime. The perpetrator later began pressuring her to convert to Islam and marry him, which further exposed the religious animosity at the core of his actions. Forced conversion directly violated her religious autonomy and fundamental right to practise her own faith without coercion. By insisting she abandon Hinduism, change her religion, and accept marriage on his terms, he sought to strip her entirely of her Hindu identity. In this context, marriage was not an expression of partnership but a tool of domination, aimed at erasing her faith, silencing her resistance, and cementing total control over her life, making it a clear case of a religiously motivated hate crime. When she resisted forced conversion and marriage, the accused assaulted and threatened her again, escalating the brutality. These assaults and threats served as tactics to shatter her spirit, intimidate her into submission, and crush any attempt to assert her autonomy as a Hindu woman. The repeated violence in response to her refusal to convert revealed the perpetrator's determination to impose Islam over her, punishing her for trying to hold on to her faith and reinforcing the religious hatred behind his actions. The accused also used a blackmail tactic, repeatedly threatening to release the obscene photos and videos he had recorded while raping her, as a method to force her into converting to Islam and marrying him. This blackmail turned her trauma into a weapon, trapping her in fear of social stigma, dishonour, and harm to her family. Using such material to enforce religious conversion and marriage showed a calculated attempt to break her will and force her to surrender her Hindu identity. In this context, blackmail functioned not as a standalone crime but as a key instrument of a hate crime, used to compel religious change through terror. Overall, this case amounted to a clear and deeply disturbing instance of a religiously motivated hate crime. The sexual violence, blackmail, forced conversion attempts, and pressure for religiously conditioned marriage were all intertwined and directed at a Hindu woman because of her faith, with the clear aim of subjugating and erasing her religious identity. Such acts demonstrate the perpetrators' religious animosity towards the victim and her Hindu faith. Therefore, this case is being added to the hate crime database of the Hinduphobia Tracker. Disclaimer: The Hinduphobia Tracker records the dates of incidents based on when the crime occurred, rather than when it was reported by the media. In this case, media reports did not state the exact date when the crime occurred. They only mentioned one specific date: 22 February 2026, when the victim was taken to an isolated location, abused, and beaten. The only other timeframe provided was that the first rape occurred around five years earlier, in 2021. Considering both these dates, an indicative date of 22 February 2021 is selected as the indicative incident date. This date is 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 
