Hindu woman befriended, pressured to convert and marry by Muslim man, obscene morphed photos made viral after resistance

Case ID : 30a89e9 | Location : Varanasi, Uttar Pradesh, India | Date of Incident : Wed, 25 May, 2016

Case ID : 30a89e9

Varanasi, Uttar Pradesh, India

25 May, 2016

Hindu woman befriended, pressured to convert and marry by Muslim man, obscene morphed photos made viral after resistance

Crimes against women in relationships and other sexual crimes

Forced conversion before marriage

Forced to do Nikah

Blackmailed to convert

Assault or threat upon refusal to convert

Case Summary

In Varanasi, Uttar Pradesh, a Hindu woman was befriended by a Muslim man named Mujeeb. The accused initially lured her into a friendship and later began pressuring and threatening her to convert to Islam and marry him. When the victim refused, he morphed the victim's photos in an obscene way and posted them on social media. The victim, a resident of a village in the Cholapur police station area, stated to the police that she had met the accused, identified as Mujeeb, through her friends, who were Mujeeb’s sisters, 10 years earlier (2016). During that time, Mujeeb came into contact with her through conversations with her friends and later befriended her, speaking with her for several days. The victim stated that the accused’s sisters frequently visited her home, and during this time, Mujeeb obtained her phone number and remained in contact with her for several days. She further stated that during this period, the accused took numerous photographs and videos of her. A few days later, her parents arranged her marriage elsewhere, which the accused objected to. The victim stated that when Mujeeb learned of this, he came to her home and threatened and abused her family. He also pressured the victim to convert to Islam and marry him. When she refused to do so, the accused morphed her photographs in an obscene manner and circulated them on social media platforms, including Instagram. Following this, the victim approached the police seeking justice. Recognising the seriousness of the matter, the police arrested the accused, Mujeeb. Police stated that the accused, Mujeeb, was arrested for forcing the victim to convert to Islam and marry him, as well as threatening to kill her and her family. The accused was produced before the court and sent to jail.

Why it is Hate Crime ?

The primary category selected in this case is- Crimes against women in relationships and other sexual crimes. The 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- 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. 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. This case was a clear example of a religiously motivated hate crime because a Hindu woman was befriended by a Muslim man, after which she was pressured to convert to Islam and marry him. When she refused to comply with his demands, she was threatened, her family members were issued death threats, and her morphed obscene photographs were circulated online by the perpetrator. The sequence of events demonstrated that the victim was specifically targeted, harassed, intimidated, and exploited due to her religious identity as a Hindu woman. The coercion, threats, blackmail, and public humiliation inflicted upon the victim collectively amounted to a clear case of a hate crime rooted in religious hostility and clear Hinduphobia. The act of befriending the Hindu woman with the eventual objective of forcing her to convert and marry showcased the calculated and predatory nature of the perpetrator’s actions. The accused first gained the trust of the victim through his sisters, who were friends with her, and gradually established contact with her over a long period of time. This trust was then exploited to emotionally manipulate and target the victim for religious conversion. The friendship was not based on genuine intentions but was instead used as a means to entrap and pressure the victim into abandoning her faith and submitting to the perpetrator’s demands. Such conduct showcased a malicious and premeditated intent to target the victim because of her religious identity, making the entire act deeply exploitative and reflective of religiously motivated hostility against Hindus. The attempt to forcibly convert the victim to Islam amounted to a clear case of a hate crime because it directly violated her religious autonomy, freedom of conscience, and fundamental right to practise and preserve her own faith. Forced conversion is not merely personal coercion but an attack on an individual’s religious identity and dignity. By pressuring the victim to abandon Hinduism and adopt Islam against her will, the perpetrator displayed complete disregard for her beliefs, traditions, and religious sentiments. The act of attempting to impose Islam upon her through threats and intimidation demonstrated a deliberate attempt to strip the victim of her Hindu identity. This reflected deep-seated hostility towards Hinduism and showcased hatred directed not only at the individual victim but also towards the broader Hindu community and its religious identity. The pressure exerted on the victim for forced marriage further highlighted the controlling and oppressive intent behind the crime. The attempt to forcibly marry the Hindu woman was not rooted in mutual consent or respect, but in domination, coercion, and the imposition of the perpetrator’s will upon her. Forced marriage in such circumstances became a tool to establish complete control over the victim’s life, identity, and choices, while simultaneously isolating her from her own religious and social background. The coercive demand for marriage, coupled with threats, intimidation, and blackmail, demonstrated an effort to subjugate the victim and exploit her because of her religious identity. This overall showcased the deep religious animosity motivating the crime and reflected a broader pattern of hostility directed towards the Hindu community. When the victim refused to convert to Islam, the accused escalated the intimidation by threatening her and her family with death threats. The use of such extreme threats after the victim refused to abandon her faith showcased the perpetrator’s deep-seated religious animosity towards the victim because of her Hindu identity. The threats were not limited to personal intimidation alone, but were directly linked to coercing the victim into religious conversion and submission to his demands. This demonstrated that the perpetrator was willing to cross every limit, including threatening violence and death, in order to force the victim to renounce her faith. Such actions clearly reflected the religious hostility motivating the crime and showcased hatred directed at the victim because she chose to remain Hindu. When the victim still refused to convert and marry him, the accused blackmailed her by morphing her photographs in an obscene manner and threatening to upload them on social media platforms. Even after this intimidation failed to force her into compliance, he proceeded to circulate the morphed photographs online and made them viral. This act showcased contempt, hostility, and hatred towards the victim because of her religious identity as a Hindu woman. The deliberate use of obscene morphed photographs as a tool of coercion and humiliation demonstrated an attempt to destroy the victim’s dignity, freedom, and social standing within society. By publicly humiliating and targeting her in this manner after she refused religious conversion, the perpetrator sought to punish her for resisting his demands and remaining committed to her faith. This made the crime not only an act of harassment and blackmail, but also a clear case of a hate crime rooted in religious hostility and Hinduphobia. Since this case involved coercion for religious conversion, threats, blackmail, and targeted harassment directed at a Hindu woman because of her faith identity, it clearly met the parameters of a religiously motivated hate crime. Such instances of forced conversion are rooted in doctrinal animosity towards the Hindu victim and her religious identity. Therefore, this case is being added to the hate crime database of the Hinduphobia Tracker. Disclaimer: Hinduphobia Tracker records incident dates based on when the victim’s ordeal began rather than when the incident was reported by the media. In the present case, media reports did not specify the exact date when the victim’s ordeal began. However, the media report, published on 26 May 2026, stated that the victim first came into contact with the perpetrator 10 years earlier, in 2016. Hence, an indicative date of 26 May 2016 has been selected as the indicative incident date for documentation purposes only.