Hindu woman pressured to convert to Islam, assaulted on refusal by Muslim husband in Vadodara, Gujarat

Case ID : 30a7be9 | Location : Vadodara, Gujarat, India | Date of Incident : Wed, 11 March, 2026

Case ID : 30a7be9

Vadodara, Gujarat, India

11 March, 2026

Hindu woman pressured to convert to Islam, assaulted on refusal by Muslim husband in Vadodara, Gujarat

Crimes against women in relationships and other sexual crimes

Forced conversion after marriage

Assault or threat upon refusal to convert

Case Summary

A Hindu woman in Vadodara, Gujarat, was pressured to convert to Islam by her Muslim husband. The Hindu victim was also subjected to repeated harassment, physical assault, and threats for refusing to convert. The situation escalated to the point where the victim fled for safety and returned to her parental home. According to media reports, the Hindu victim had been in a relationship with a Muslim man, Salman Pathan, for a period of eight years. During this time, they developed a relationship which later led to a court marriage. After the marriage, the couple began living together and had a child. The relationship initially remained stable following the marriage and childbirth. After the birth of their child, the woman experienced a change in behaviour from her husband. Salman Pathan began pressuring her to adopt Islam. The pressure was repeated and persistent within the household. He also stated that he would bring another Muslim woman as a second wife. When the Hindu woman refused to change her religion, she was subjected to physical violence. She was beaten and threatened with death. The threats were direct and created fear for her safety. The harassment and coercion continued over a period of time within the marital home. Unable to bear the violence and threats, the Hindu woman escaped from the situation. She sought help from people while leaving the location and managed to reach her parental home safely. After reaching her family, she recounted the events that had taken place. Following this, a complaint was filed at the Bapod Police Station in Vadodara against Salman Pathan. The case was registered for forced religious conversion, physical assault, and threats to life. Police registered the case and initiated further action based on the victim's complaint.

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 - Forced conversion after marriage. In such cases, a non-Hindu man marries a Hindu woman, and the force/pressure to convert to any Abrahamic faith, like Islam, begins after marriage. 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. The marriage could be under the Special Marriages Act, where neither parties are required to convert their religion for the marriage to be considered legitimate. While the victim in such cases enters matrimony assuming that religious identity is not a barrier, the non-Hindu man starts to pressure the woman to convert her religion after marriage. 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 situations, there is application of force by the perpetrator, including the denial of the woman’s religious rights. Some of the means by which the woman is forced/pressured to convert include force-feeding beef, being forced to read the Kalma, being forced to wear a hijab, forced to undergo Halala, etc. There are several instances where, after marriage, the woman voluntarily converts to Islam. Such cases are often argued to be a result of religious brainwashing, however, for the purpose of documenting religiously motivated hate crimes, in the absence of the victim complaining of forced conversion, such cases do not form a part of the database. Another sub-category selected for 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 stands as a clear example of an anti-Hindu hate crime, as a Hindu woman was lured into a relationship and marriage by a Muslim man, Salman Pathan, who then began forcing her to convert to Islam. He also assaulted her brutally and issued death threats when she refused to convert. These actions showcased the deep-seated religious animosity behind the crime, making it a clear case of a religiously motivated hate crime. Salman Pathan pursued her for eight years, secured a court marriage, and fathered a child with her, only to reveal his true intent through relentless pressure to abandon her Hindu faith. This progression from deception to coercion laid bare his predatory focus on her religious identity, transforming their relationship into a vehicle for religious subjugation. Even though the perpetrator did not hide his religious identity, the nature of their relationship and subsequent marriage made the woman believe that religious differences would not become a barrier to their romantic involvement or shared life. Trusting this assurance, the victim married him and built a family together. However, the fact that he later began pressuring her to convert exposed the predatory nature of the perpetrator from the very beginning, where he targeted this Hindu woman solely because he intended to convert her to Islam in the future. His initial silence on conversion demands created a false sense of security, allowing him to deepen her emotional and familial ties before springing the trap. This calculated patience amounted to a deliberate strategy rooted in religious superiority, proving that her Hindu identity was always the core target of his intentions. The act of forcing the Hindu woman to convert after their marriage and the birth of their child further showcased how the perpetrator exploited her vulnerability as a new mother. In society, it is generally taboo for a woman who has just delivered a child to leave the marriage or face upheaval, as she prioritises family stability and her infant's well-being during this fragile postpartum period. Salman Pathan timed his demands precisely to capitalise on this vulnerability, trapping her when she was physically weakest and emotionally bound to their child, subjecting her to assault upon refusal to convert. All this highlighted the malicious nature of the entire crime, aimed at obliterating her Hindu identity through calculated coercion at her most defenceless moment, cementing its status as a hate crime. The pressure to convert itself revealed deep-seated religious animosity, as Salman Pathan never truly saw the victim as his equal partner or wife but only as a potential target for forced religious conversion. This post-marriage demand violated the victim's religious autonomy, amounting to blatant discrimination that treated her Hindu faith as disposable and inferior. By insisting on her abandonment of Hinduism, he dismissed her spiritual beliefs as worthless, inflicting profound hurt on the sentiments tied to her lifelong devotion. Such conduct made the religiously motivated nature of the crime unequivocally clear, as it sought to nil out her Hindu essence under the guise of marital unity. When the victim refused to convert to Islam, she was subjected to physical assault and death threats, which starkly showcased the perpetrator's religious zeal, ready to go to any length to change her faith identity. Salman Pathan beat her savagely and warned of killing her, escalating violence in direct response to her defence of Hinduism, proving his intolerance extended beyond persuasion to brutal enforcement. These threats and assaults were not impulsive anger, but deliberate tools to break her resolve, demonstrating a fanatic commitment to erasing her Hindu self and imposing Islam by force. This willingness to assault her physically for upholding her faith marked it as a clear case of a religiously motivated hate crime. Given that this case meets several parameters of a hate crime, it is added to the hate crime database of the Hinduphobia tracker. Disclaimer: The tracker records incident dates based on when the crime occurred rather than when it was reported. In this case, the exact date of the incident is not specified in the available sources. Therefore, 12th March 2026 has been used as the indicative incident date based on the article’s publication timeline. This date has been selected for documentation purposes only and does not represent a confirmed date of occurrence.