Hindu woman abducted, forced into conversion and nikah by Muslim man, who later murdered her

Case ID : 30a8275 | Location : Rampur, Uttar Pradesh, India | Date of Incident : Thu, 21 November, 2019

Case ID : 30a8275

Rampur, Uttar Pradesh, India

21 November, 2019

Hindu woman abducted, forced into conversion and nikah by Muslim man, who later murdered her

Crimes against women in relationships and other sexual crimes

Brainwashed and/or groomed

Family/Friends of deceased victim says she was brainwashed/groomed

Forced conversion before marriage

Forced to do Nikah

Case Summary

In Rampur, Uttar Pradesh, a Hindu woman was abducted and pressured for religious conversion and nikah by a Muslim man named Salim, who later murdered her. The incident came to light when the victim's mother, Bina Devi, approached the police on 22 November 2019, stating that her daughter had been abducted, forcibly converted to Islam, and subsequently disappeared under suspicious circumstances, expressing fear that she was killed. The victim, a resident of the SGM Nagar area near Barkal Lake in Faridabad, was abducted and taken to Rampur by the accused, Salim, a resident of Kashipur Anga. Following directions from the Superintendent of Police, a formal case was registered at Ganj police station against Salim and his associates, including his brothers, Islam and Aslam. The investigation revealed that the accused had lured the victim away from her home and transported her across state lines. He then converted her to Islam and forced her into nikah (Islamic marriage) before murdering her. Her body was recovered and exhumed as part of the investigation, confirming the fatal outcome of the sustained abuse she endured. Law enforcement authorities completed the investigation and filed a chargesheet against Salim, leading to a prolonged legal process spanning several years. The court ultimately found Salim guilty of the offences, establishing his direct involvement in the conversion, exploitation, and murder of the victim. By May 2026, the proceedings had reached the sentencing stage, with the court scheduled to pronounce punishment following the conviction.

Why it is Hate Crime ?

This case has been added to the tracker under the primary category selected here - Crimes against women in relationships and other sexual crimes. Within it, the sub-category selected here is - Brainwashed and/or groomed, with the tertiary category being - Family/Friends of deceased 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. The other sub-category selected here is - Forced conversion before marriage. Within it, the tertiary category selected here 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. This case has been added to the tracker because a Hindu woman was abducted, forcibly converted to Islam, married, and subsequently murdered by the Muslim perpetrator, Salim, indicating a pattern of coercion and violence intersecting with religious identity. The sequence of actions, from targeting the victim, luring and abducting her, and relocating her across state lines to Rampur, demonstrated a deliberate effort to isolate her and exert control over her life. The victim’s identity as a Hindu woman formed a central element in this process, as she was taken away from her familial and social context and placed in a situation where her autonomy was systematically undermined. After abducting her, the accused forcibly converted her to Islam and performed nikah with her. The act of forcing the victim to convert to Islam reflected a direct infringement on her religious freedom and personal agency. Conversion under such circumstances did not arise from individual belief or consent but occurred within a context of coercion and control, where the victim had limited ability to resist. Such an attempt reflects religious animosity because the act is not simply about personal differences but about erasing the victim’s Hindu faith, making it a religiously motivated crime. Furthermore, in Islam, marriage to a non-Muslim partner is prohibited, which is why she converted to Islam before nikah. This forced imposition on her religious identity illustrated hostility towards her Hindu faith, as the accused sought to alter her identity through force rather than choice, aligning with patterns where religious coercion becomes a tool of domination. Often in such cases, the act of abduction was meant to isolate her from her family and immediate social circle so as to make her more susceptible to conversion. The intention was to break the victim down, emotionally, physically, and spiritually, so that she could be converted. This was not random violence; it was systematic, targeted, and rooted in religious animosity. Such actions stem from inherent hostility towards the victim's professed faith since Abrahamic faiths believe that any non-adherent to the faith is subject to being dehumanised till they convert. Such acts were not merely personal crimes; they were rooted in a desire to dominate and erase the religious identity of the victim. Taken together, these elements illustrated a sustained pattern of targeting, coercion, and violence, where the victim’s Hindu identity was central to the acts committed against her. Since such predatory actions stem from doctrinal animosity towards the Hindu faith and its adherents, this case is being documented as a religiously motivated hate crime. Disclaimer: The Hinduphobia Tracker records incidents based on when an event occurred or when the victim's ordeal began. It is important to clarify that none of the media sources covering this case has specified the exact date when the accused abducted the victim or when he came into contact with her. Therefore, for documentation purposes, we have recorded the date based on when the incident was reported to the police by the victim's mother, 22 November 2019.