Hindu woman sexually exploited and pressured for conversion by Muslim man pretending to be Hindu; subjected to death threats upon refusal

Case ID : 30a8bfc | Location : Dehradun, Uttarakhand, India | Date of Incident : Mon, 1 June, 2026

Case ID : 30a8bfc

Dehradun, Uttarakhand, India

1 June, 2026

Hindu woman sexually exploited and pressured for conversion by Muslim man pretending to be Hindu; subjected to death threats upon refusal

Crimes against women in relationships and other sexual crimes

Man pretends to be Hindu

Brainwashed and/or groomed

Rape and sexual assault/harassment

Forced conversion before marriage

Assault or threat upon refusal to convert

Case Summary

In the Sahaspur area of Dehradun, Uttarakhand, a Hindu woman was deceived, sexually exploited and pressured for religious conversion by a Muslim man named Danish, who pretended to be Hindu. According to the police investigation and the complaint filed by the victim, the Muslim accused, Danish, a resident of Pahadi Gali in Vikasnagar, befriended a Hindu woman through Instagram, establishing a romantic relationship with her, by concealing his religious identity and introducing himself as a Hindu man. After securing her trust and exploiting the relationship, he subjected her to sexual intercourse on the promise of marriage. Subsequently, the true nature of his identity came to light, following which he began exerting pressure on the Hindu woman to convert to Islam as a condition for continuing the relationship and marriage. The victim further stated that when she resisted the demand for religious conversion, Danish subjected her to intimidation and coercion. He threatened to make her private photographs and videos public and also issued threats to kill her. The pressure to abandon her faith and adopt Islam was accompanied by emotional manipulation and fear, placing the woman under significant distress. Following her complaint, the police registered a case under the relevant provisions of the law, including the Uttarakhand Freedom of Religion Act. Acting on the complaint, the Sahaspur police formed a team and conducted an investigation into the evidence presented by the victim. After verifying the facts of the case, the police arrested Danish near his residence in Vikasnagar. He was subsequently produced before a court and remanded to judicial custody. Senior police officials stated that the case fell within the ambit of Uttarakhand's anti-conversion legislation, and legal proceedings were initiated against the accused for deceiving the woman, sexually exploiting her under the pretext of marriage, and pressuring her to convert to Islam.

Why it is Hate Crime ?

The primary category for the case is "Crimes against women in relationships and other sexual crimes". The sub-category for this case is "Man pretends to be Hindu". The tertiary categories here are "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. Another sub-category for this case is "Brainwashed and/or groomed". The tertiary categories here are "Rape and sexual assault/harassment." 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. One other sub-category for this case 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. Another sub-category that this case qualifies for 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 has been added to the tracker because a Hindu woman was deceived, sexually exploited, threatened, and pressured to abandon her faith and convert to Islam by a Muslim man named Danish, who concealed his religious identity and presented himself as a Hindu in order to gain her trust and establish a relationship. Firstly, the accused deliberately concealed his religious identity to initiate and sustain a relationship with a Hindu woman. This itself is a clear manifestation of bias and malicious intent towards the victim's religion. By concealing his true identity, he exploited her trust, targeting her under false pretences. This indicates a premeditated intent to manipulate her based on her religious background. In cases like these, the tactic of adopting a false Hindu identity to manipulate and "ensnare" a Hindu individual is not just an act of personal betrayal but can also be interpreted as an expression of disdain or disregard for Hinduism and its customs that reflects a deeper animosity towards Hindus and their beliefs. In such instances, identity concealment is not merely a personal deception but a calculated strategy rooted in religious targeting and profiling. The accused was aware that the victim, being Hindu, may not have consented to the relationship had she known his real identity from the outset. He therefore circumvented her ability to exercise informed choice by deliberately lying about his name and religious background. This demonstrated a premeditated effort to exploit the victim specifically on the basis of her religious identity. Secondly, after establishing the relationship through deception and obtaining sexual access to the victim under the pretext of marriage, the accused revealed his true identity and began pressuring her to convert to Islam. The demand for conversion transformed what had initially been presented as a romantic relationship into an attempt to alter and erase the victim's religious identity. The pressure to abandon Hinduism was not a peripheral aspect of the case but a central element of the abuse. The victim was expected to renounce her faith as a prerequisite for continuing the relationship and marriage. Such conduct represents an attack on the victim's freedom of conscience and right to maintain her religious identity. Rather than accepting the victim as a Hindu, the accused sought to compel her to abandon her faith and adopt his own, thereby treating her religious identity as something that needed to be replaced. This targeting of a person specifically because of her religious identity provides a strong indicator of religious bias and hostility. Thirdly, when the victim resisted the conversion demand, the accused escalated the abuse by resorting to threats, intimidation, and coercion. He threatened to make her private photographs and videos public and also threatened to kill her. These threats were not isolated acts of criminal intimidation but formed part of a broader pattern of coercive control designed to force compliance with his demands. The use of blackmail, sexual exploitation, and threats of violence after the victim refused to convert demonstrates that the pressure for religious conversion was being pursued through fear and psychological domination. The victim was subjected to sustained coercion intended to break her resistance and compel her to surrender both her personal autonomy and her religious identity. The exploitation of intimate material and the threat of public humiliation were particularly significant because they weaponised the victim's vulnerability in order to force a religious outcome. These exploitations were not random acts of crime; rather, they functioned as religiously motivated tools aimed at humiliating and dominating a Hindu woman because of her faith. The target was not the victim as an individual, but her Hindu identity. The specific focus on her Hindu identity in the commission of these acts highlights the religious hatred underlying the crime, making it a religiously motivated offence. 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. 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 trapped the victim. Therefore, for documentation purposes, we have recorded the date based on when the incident was reported in the media, 2 June 2026.