Hindu woman lured into relationship, forcibly converted to Islam, married, and later sold off by Muslim man pretending to be Hindu

Case ID : 30a8b51 | Location : Kanpur, Uttar Pradesh, India | Date of Incident : Wed, 29 September, 2021

Case ID : 30a8b51

Kanpur, Uttar Pradesh, India

29 September, 2021

Hindu woman lured into relationship, forcibly converted to Islam, married, and later sold off by Muslim man pretending to be Hindu

Crimes against women in relationships and other sexual crimes

Man pretends to be Hindu

Name Changed

Forced conversion before marriage

Forced to do Nikah

Case Summary

In Kanpur, Uttar Pradesh, a Hindu woman was lured into a relationship and targeted through religious deception, forced conversion, and abuse. The accused, a Muslim man named Rehan alias Arhaan, concealed his religious identity and adopted a Hindu name, Rishabh, to initiate a relationship with the victim before coercing her into marriage and conversion to Islam. He later sold her to two men in Delhi. According to the victim, she was a first-year Bachelor of Science student at a college in the Naubasta area in 2021 when she came into contact with the accused. She stated that he introduced himself using a Hindu name and concealed his religious identity while promising to help her secure employment. Trusting him, she entered into a relationship with him. However, when he took her to his residence in Kuli Bazaar, she discovered his true identity. The victim stated that when she objected to this deception, the accused and his family members confined her in their house for approximately one week. During this period, she was forcibly converted to Islam and married to the accused in September 2021. Thereafter, the accused rented a room in the Gadiyana locality under the jurisdiction of Chakeri Police Station, where the couple resided. The victim further stated that in November 2025, the accused took her to Delhi and subsequently sold her to two men. She later managed to escape and return to Kanpur. Upon her return, the victim stated that the accused assaulted her, pronounced triple talaq (Islamic divorce), and threatened to kill her if she disclosed the ordeal to anyone. Seeking justice, she approached the Police Commissioner and filed a complaint regarding the incident. Deputy Commissioner of Police Deependra Nath Chaudhary stated that the matter would be investigated and that appropriate legal action would be taken based on the findings of the inquiry.

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: Man pretends to be Hindu. The tertiary category selected 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 other subcategory selected is: Forced conversion before marriage. Within this, 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. In this case, the Hindu woman was deceived into a relationship by a Muslim man who concealed his religious identity and adopted a Hindu name. According to the victim, he gained her trust by promising to help her secure employment and maintained the deception until she discovered his true identity. Following this, she was forcibly converted and married to the accused, after which he sold her off to two men in Delhi. Firstly, the perpetrator's act of deception by posing as a Hindu itself demonstrates a clear bias and malicious intent towards the victim's religion. By hiding his true identity, the Muslim man manipulated the Hindu woman's trust and targeted her under false pretences, indicating a premeditated effort to pursue a relationship through religious deception. The accused's deliberate decision to adopt a Hindu identity was not incidental but was used as a means to gain the confidence of the victim and overcome any reservations she may have had regarding the relationship. This constituted a direct violation of the victim's right to make an informed decision regarding whom she chose to trust and enter into a relationship with. Furthermore, the concealment of religious identity deprived the victim of material information that could have influenced her decision-making. By presenting himself as a Hindu, the accused created a false impression about a fundamental aspect of his identity, thereby securing the victim's trust through misrepresentation. Such deception undermined the principle of informed consent, as the relationship was initiated and developed on the basis of information that the victim later discovered to be untrue. Thus, the perpetrator's deliberate decision to hide his religious identity strongly underscores the religious dimension of the deception. In such instances, identity concealment is not merely a personal falsehood but a calculated strategy rooted in religious misrepresentation. The accused was aware that revealing his true identity could have affected her willingness to enter into the relationship, and therefore, he adopted a false Hindu identity to gain her trust. The deception was therefore central to the formation of the relationship and formed the foundation upon which subsequent events unfolded. This deception reflects a larger pattern where Hindu women are specifically singled out using false identities by Muslim men. Such targeted victimisation based on religion demonstrates a fundamental disregard for Hinduism and exposes deeper animosity towards Hindu women and their beliefs, making it a religiously driven hate crime. Further, according to the victim, the accused took her to his residence, where she discovered his true identity. The sequence of events described by the victim suggests that the deception was not an isolated act but part of a carefully structured course of conduct. By first cultivating her trust under a false Hindu identity and then bringing her into an environment controlled by him and his family members, the accused placed her in a position of significant vulnerability. The victim stated that it was after she arrived at his residence and learnt of his true identity that she was confined by the accused and his family. This progression from deception to confinement indicates a calculated effort to isolate the victim from her support network and reduce her ability to seek assistance or leave freely. The use of a false identity to establish trust, followed by captivity after the truth was revealed, points to a predatory pattern in which the victim's confidence was deliberately secured in order to facilitate control over her. Essentially, the deception served as the mechanism through which the accused was able to lure her into circumstances where she became substantially more vulnerable to coercion and exploitation. Furthermore, the victim stated that she was forcibly converted to Islam during her confinement and subsequently compelled to marry the accused. The forced conversion represents far more than an infringement of the victim's personal autonomy; it constitutes an attack on an individual's religious identity and freedom of conscience. A person's faith forms a fundamental aspect of their identity, and any attempt to alter or replace that faith through coercion necessarily targets that aspect of the individual. The accused did not merely seek a personal relationship but sought to compel a change in her religious identity itself. The fact that the conversion was not voluntary but was carried out forcibly during a period of confinement further intensifies the religious dimension of the conduct. Rather than respecting the victim's right to continue practising her own Hindu faith, the accused sought to extinguish that religious identity and replace it with Islam through force. Such conduct reflects profound disregard for the victim's beliefs and her freedom to adhere to her own religion, thereby giving the abuse a distinct religious character. The victim further stated that the accused later took her to Delhi and sold her to two men before she managed to escape and return to Kanpur. According to her account, this act represented the culmination of a pattern of exploitation that began with religious deception. The sale of the victim suggests that she was no longer regarded by the accused as an autonomous individual deserving of dignity and respect, but rather as an object to be used for his own purposes. Viewed in the context of the earlier incidents of identity concealment, confinement, forced conversion, and coerced marriage, the incident demonstrates a complete dehumanisation of the victim. Rather than treating her as a genuine partner in a relationship, the accused reduced her to a means through which he could exercise control and derive benefit. The victim's account, therefore, suggests that she was not valued as an individual with her own rights, beliefs, and agency but was instead treated as a target for manipulation, conversion, and subsequent exploitation. After she escaped and returned to Kanpur, the accused assaulted her, threatened to kill her if she disclosed the ordeal to anyone, and pronounced triple talaq. These actions, as described by the victim, further reinforce the pattern of dehumanisation and coercive control evident throughout the conduct. The assault and death threats indicate an attempt to silence the victim and prevent her from seeking justice, while the pronouncement of triple talaq immediately after the exploitation showcases a willingness to discard her once she no longer serves the accused's purposes. This sequence of events demonstrates that the relationship was never founded upon mutual respect, care, or equality. Rather, the accused exercised control over the victim when it suited him and then abandoned her after subjecting her to extensive abuse. The threats and violence following her return also indicate a continued effort to dominate and intimidate her, reflecting a profound disregard for her dignity, safety, and humanity. Given that this case meets the parameters of a hate-driven offence, it is being added to the hate crime database of the Hinduphobia Tracker. Disclaimer: The Hinduphobia Tracker records incident dates based on when the victim's ordeal or the underlying offence is understood to have commenced, rather than the date on which the incident was reported in the media. In the present case, media reports did not specify the exact date on which the victim's ordeal began. The earliest definite timeframe mentioned in available reports is September 2021, when the victim stated that she was forcibly converted to Islam and married to the accused. The media report was published on 31 May 2026. In the absence of a precise incident date, and for documentation purposes only, 30 September 2021, being the last day of the earliest identified month in which a key event in the victim's ordeal occurred, has been selected as the indicative incident date.