Hindu woman lured into relationship, sexually exploited and issued death threats by Muslim man pretending to be Hindu in Bhopal

Case ID : 30a7a2a | Location : Bhopal, Madhya Pradesh, India | Date of Incident : Sun, 5 April, 2026

Case ID : 30a7a2a

Bhopal, Madhya Pradesh, India

5 April, 2026

Hindu woman lured into relationship, sexually exploited and issued death threats by Muslim man pretending to be Hindu in Bhopal

Crimes against women in relationships and other sexual crimes

Man pretends to be Hindu

Name Changed

Brainwashed and/or groomed

Rape and sexual assault/harassment

Victim says she was brainwashed/groomed

Forced conversion before marriage

Assault or threat upon refusal to convert

Case Summary

A Hindu woman studying engineering in Bhopal, Madhya Pradesh, was deceived and sexually exploited by a Muslim man. The accused concealed his Muslim identity and posed as a Hindu to entrap the victim. She was subjected to sexual assault and later pressured to convert to Islam after becoming pregnant. The Hindu woman also faced threats when she refused to change her religion. The Muslim man, identified as Asif Raza, first approached the Hindu woman in Bhopal by introducing himself as Ashish Pandey. He befriended her during her college period and built a relationship by hiding his real identity. Over time, he gained her trust and established a close connection with her. After developing the relationship, Asif Raza engaged in sexual relations with the Hindu woman. During this period, she became pregnant. When the Hindu woman raised the issue of marriage, she began to suspect his identity and conducted further checks. The Hindu woman then discovered that the man was not Ashish Pandey but a Muslim man named Asif Raza, also identified as Shadab. After his identity was revealed, he refused to marry her. He then began pressuring her to convert to Islam for marriage. The Muslim man also called the Hindu woman to the Janakganj area in Gwalior on the pretext of marriage. At that location, he sexually assaulted her. After this incident, the pressure to convert continued. When the Hindu woman refused to convert, the Muslim man demanded that she terminate the pregnancy. He also threatened to kill her. Along with him, two other Muslim men, Saif Sheikh and Sajeeb Khan, were involved in pressuring and intimidating the Hindu victim. The Hindu woman filed a complaint at the women’s police station in Bhopal. A First Information Report was registered against three perpetrators. Police formed teams to locate and arrest the accused. At the time of writing this report, the perpetrators had not yet been arrested, and the search was ongoing.

Why it is Hate Crime ?

This case has been added to the tracker under the primary category - Crimes against women in relationships and other sexual crimes. Within this, the subcategory selected is - Man pretends to be Hindu. The tertiary category selected under this 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 subcategory selected for this case is - Brainwashed and/or groomed. The tertiary categories selected under this are - Victim says she was brainwashed or groomed, and 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. Another subcategory selected 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. The other subcategory selected in this case 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 qualifies as a religiously motivated hate crime because a Hindu woman was deliberately targeted for sexual exploitation and forced religious conversion through deception, manipulation, and threats by a Muslim man who pretended to be Hindu. The victim was also subjected to death threats after she refused conversion, showing that her Hindu identity lay at the heart of the harm inflicted. Firstly, the perpetrator's act of deception by posing as a Hindu demonstrated clear bias and malicious intent towards the victim's religion. By hiding his true identity and using a false Hindu name like Ashish Pandey, the Muslim man manipulated the Hindu woman's trust and targeted her under false pretences, indicating a premeditated effort to exploit her based on her religious background. This constituted a direct violation of her right to informed consent regarding the relationship, as well as an infringement upon her religious beliefs. Thus, the perpetrator’s deliberate decision to hide his religious identity strongly underscores the religious motive behind this crime. In such instances, identity concealment is not just a deceptive tactic for personal reasons but a calculated strategy rooted in religious profiling and targeting. The accused knew that the victim, being Hindu, would likely refuse his advances if she knew his real identity as Asif Raza, and he circumvented this by lying, which directly points to a religiously driven intent. This deception reflects a larger pattern where Hindu women are specifically singled out using false identities, often with coercion or conversion in mind. Such targeted victimisation based on religion not only demonstrates a fundamental disregard for Hinduism but also exposes a deeper animosity toward Hindus and their beliefs. The relationship progressed into sexual exploitation after trust was established. This was significant because the sexual relationship occurred under false pretences. The Hindu woman’s consent was influenced by the belief that she was in a relationship with a Hindu man. This directly harmed her as a Hindu woman by using deception to enable sexual exploitation. This act was not a random instance of sexual exploitation; it was a targeted assault driven by religious bias, aimed at singling out and violating a Hindu woman because of her religious identity. Such acts of exploitation by manipulation and religious profiling clearly underline the religiously motivated nature of this crime. They seek to dominate and humiliate a Hindu woman for her faith identity, making it a hate crime. After the deception and sexual exploitation, when the woman became pregnant, the Muslim man's true identity was starkly revealed. The victim learned he was not the Hindu man he claimed to be, and he immediately refused to marry her, unmasking his use of marriage promises and intimacy as cynical tools to manipulate and control her. This betrayal showcased the profoundly predatory nature of the crime, culminating in his explicit demand for her to convert to Islam as a precondition for any union. The post-exploitation conversion demand ties the entire scheme together: from initial targeting through false Hindu identity, through sexual coercion, all roads led to the ultimate goal of stripping her of her Hindu faith. Forced conversion erodes the victim's religious autonomy, wrenching away her fundamental right to follow her beliefs and live as a Hindu without external diktat. It inflicts a grievous insult on her religious sentiments and identity, treating her faith as disposable and inferior, reducing a person's sacred spiritual core to a bargaining chip. Such violations are not mere personal disputes but hallmarks of a hate crime, where animosity against Hinduism drives the aggressor to dismantle the victim's religious identity, humiliate her and her community, and impose Islamic supremacy through spiritual subjugation. When the Hindu woman stood firm and refused to convert, the perpetrator escalated to outright threats and intimidation, revealing his willingness to go to any extreme to eradicate her Hindu identity. He issued chilling death threats against her and demanded she terminate the pregnancy, coupling physical coercion with emotional blackmail to shatter her resolve. This escalation was profoundly significant: the threats were not random but inextricably linked to her rejection of Islam, proving her steadfast Hindu identity was the precise trigger for his rage. By resorting to such barbaric tactics, threatening her life and unborn child, he exposed a fanatical determination to strip away every vestige of her Hindu faith, no matter the cost, transforming personal betrayal into a vicious assault on her religious core and underscoring the crime's deep roots in anti-Hindu hatred. The pattern of behaviour showed manipulation over time. This was significant because the perpetrator gradually built trust, isolated the victim, and increased control before introducing religious pressure. The progression from emotional manipulation to coercion reflected a structured approach. This directly targeted the Hindu woman by exploiting her vulnerability to influence her religious identity. The Hindu woman herself described being manipulated and deceived throughout the relationship. This was significant because it confirmed that the relationship was built on sustained psychological control. The deception, pressure, and threats created a situation where her autonomy was compromised. This directly impacted her as a Hindu woman by using manipulation to attempt religious conversion. Given that this case met the parameters of a religiously motivated hate crime, it was added to the hate crime database of the tracker. Disclaimer: The Hinduphobia Tracker records the date of incidents based on when the victim's ordeal begins rather than when it is reported by the media. In this case, media reports have not stated the exact date when the victim's ordeal began. Hence, the earliest media report date, 6 April 2026, is selected as the indicated incident date for documentation purposes only. In this case, although the main perpetrator was Asif Raza, two Muslim friends, Saif Sheikh and Sajeeb Khan, also took part in the crime. Therefore, the perpetrator count has been recorded as "3", referring to all three Muslim perpetrators.