Hindu student lured via Instagram by Muslim man under false Hindu identity, taken to Gwalior and sexually exploited and forced to convert on promise of marriage
Gwalior, Madhya Pradesh, India 
13 February, 2025
Case Summary
In Madhya Pradesh's Gwalior, a Hindu student was deceived into a relationship by a Muslim man posing as a Hindu on social media. She was sexually exploited under the pretext of marriage and later forced to convert to Islam. According to the 21-year-old student, a resident of Pandhurna district in Madhya Pradesh, she was studying BSc at a private university in Bhopal while living in rented accommodation. Around a year ago, in February 2025, she befriended a man named Shadab Ali on Instagram. He had created an account under the name “Sadev Shooter.” Believing him to be a Hindu, she began talking to him. Gradually, their communication increased through Instagram and phone calls. During their conversations, Shadab expressed his liking for her and proposed marriage. He invited her to Gwalior, and on 4 March 2025, she went there to meet him. He took her to a hotel in the Girwai police station area, where he sexually exploited her under the pretext of marriage and kept her in the hotel for about a week. After this, she returned to Bhopal. After 4–5 days, Shadab called her, saying he needed money. She sold her gold earrings and gave him the money. Later, the accused came to Bhopal and stayed with her in a live-in relationship for about three months in the Ashoka Garden area, during which they had physical relations. During this period, the student became pregnant. When she informed Shadab about her pregnancy, he asked her to terminate it and stated that if they married, she would have to adopt his religion. After this, things changed between them. Shadab began picking fights over small issues, physically assaulting her, and eventually refused to marry her. He also threatened to kill her and fled. The student filed a complaint at the Ashoka Garden Police Station in Bhopal. The police registered a zero FIR and, since the incident occurred under Gwalior jurisdiction, transferred the case diary to Gwalior, where Girwai police initiated further action and registered a case against the accused and began efforts to locate him.
Why it is Hate Crime ?
The incident has been added to the tracker under the primary category- Crimes against women in relationships and other sexual crimes. Within this, the first subcategory selected is- Man pretends to be Hindu, and the tertiary category 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. The second subcategory 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. The third subcategory is- Assault and 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- Leaves Hindu partner upon refusal to convert. When Hindu women are in a relationship with non-Hindu men, there are cases where the woman faces pressure/threats/violence to convert and change her religious identity by the non-Hindu man. However, when the Hindu woman refuses to convert, the non-Hindu man ends the relationship or divorces the woman, as the case might be. 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 pressuring the Hindu woman to change her religious identity and upon her refusal, ends the relationship. Cases where the Hindu woman converts to Islam and does not file a complaint about the force, or threat after she refuses to convert to Islam, are not considered a part of the hate tracker. The other subcategory selected is- Brainwashed and/or groomed, and within this, the tertiary category is- Victim says she was brainwashed/groomed and Rape and sexual assault/harassment. In several cases, a Hindu woman and/or minor is sexually harassed and/or assaulted with a religious motive. For example, in a case in Kausambi, UP, a Hindu girl was raped by non-Hindu perpetrators. During the assault, the victim pleaded to 'spare her in the name of Bhagwan'. The perpetrators then asked her to plead in the name of Allah. This clearly indicates a religious motive for the crime and evidences the religious animosity the perpetrators harbored against the victim owing to her religious identity. Such cases would be added to this tertiary category since the religious animosity makes the crime a hate crime. The religious motive of the crime is evident from the fact that the accused initially concealed his true identity and approached the Hindu victim under a false name on social media. This act of deception was not incidental but a deliberate attempt to gain her trust by presenting himself in a manner that would not raise suspicion. By hiding his real identity, the accused was able to establish a relationship under false pretences, which indicates a calculated effort to manipulate the victim while bypassing the natural social and religious boundaries that may have otherwise existed. Further, the manner in which the victim was drawn into the relationship and later subjected to exploitation reflects a pattern of grooming and control. The accused used emotional manipulation and the promise of marriage to establish influence over her decisions. This becomes significant as it shows that the relationship was not based on genuine intent but was structured in a way that allowed the accused to exercise control over the victim’s actions and circumstances. Another important marker is the explicit condition imposed for marriage, wherein the victim was told that she would have to adopt the accused’s religion. This clearly establishes that the continuation of the relationship was made contingent upon the abandonment of her existing faith. Such a demand transforms the nature of the crime from personal exploitation to one involving coercion aimed at altering the victim’s religious identity. It demonstrates that conversion was not incidental but an intended outcome tied to the relationship. The continued exploitation, including the refusal to marry after making repeated assurances and the pressure to terminate the pregnancy, further indicates that the initial promises were used as tools of control. The victim was kept in a state of dependence and vulnerability, which allowed the accused to impose conditions that would not have been accepted under normal circumstances. This sustained pattern of manipulation reinforces the inference that the actions were premeditated and structured. In cases like these, the tactic of concealing identity, establishing trust through deception, and then conditioning the relationship on religious conversion reflects more than individual wrongdoing. It shows a deliberate use of religious identity as a means of control and influence, where the victim’s faith becomes a factor to be altered under pressure. Such actions indicate a disregard for the victim’s religious background and exploit her trust in a targeted manner. It is this combination of deception, coercion, and the conditional demand for conversion that establishes the religious nature of the offence, and this is why the case has been recorded as a hate crime under the tracker. Disclaimer: The incident was reported by the media on 14th April 2026. The Hinduphobia Tracker, however, records incident dates based on when the victim’s ordeal began, rather than when it was reported. In this case, the available information indicates that the sequence of events began in February 2025, when the accused first contacted the victim. However, as no specific day is mentioned in the reports, the date has been standardised using the day on which the case was reported, i.e., 14th, while the month and year have been kept as February 2025, to maintain consistency in documentation while accurately reflecting the timeline of the incident.
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 filed
Perpetrators Details
Perpetrators
Muslim Extremists
Perpetrators Range
One Person
Perpetrators Gender
male
Sources 
