Hindu woman confined and beaten after refusing religious conversion by Muslims at Dargah

Case ID : 30a8c24 | Location : Nagpur, Maharashtra, India | Date of Incident : Fri, 17 April, 2026

Case ID : 30a8c24

Nagpur, Maharashtra, India

17 April, 2026

Hindu woman confined and beaten after refusing religious conversion by Muslims at Dargah

Predatory Proselytisation

Harassment, threats, coercion for conversion

Attack not resulting in death

Attacked for refusal to convert

Case Summary

A Hindu woman from Kolkata travelled to Nagpur, Maharashtra, to attend a religious event held at the dargah where she was subjected to pressure to abandon her faith and convert to Islam. What began as a visit to a religious site escalated into an incident involving confinement, physical violence, molestation, and an attempt on her life. The victim, identified as 38 year old Paudita from the Dum Dum area of Kolkata, West Bengal, had been visiting the Maryam Amma Dargah in the Old Kamthi area of Nagpur from time to time. In April 2026, she travelled to Nagpur to attend a religious programme held at the dargah. During this visit, she came into contact with individuals associated with the religious establishment, including Baba Taji Janveeruddin, his wife Taji Mustafa Firuddin Faiz, Tejas Khobragade, Bashra Fatema Taji, Malhar Dhule, and others. On the night of 18th April 2026, the Hindu woman was pressured to convert to Islam. The pressure was directed at changing her religious identity while she was present at the dargah. When she refused to accept the conversion demands, she was subjected to physical assault. She was beaten and molested during the incident. The violence escalated further and an attempt was made on her life. The Hindu woman was also held captive during the course of the incident and subjected to repeated violence and coercion until she managed to escape from the location on 19th April 2026. After escaping, she made arrangements to return home. On 21st April 2026, she boarded a train back to Kolkata. By the time she returned, she had sustained injuries and her condition was serious. The incident left her physically and mentally scarred. Following the complaint filed by the Hindu woman, Kanhan Police registered a case against six individuals connected to the Maryam Amma Dargah. The case included charges relating to forced religious conversion, assault, molestation, wrongful confinement, and attempt to murder. An investigation was initiated into the incident, and police began examining the role of all named individuals and their associates.

Why it is Hate Crime ?

This case has been added to the tracker under the primary category - Predatory proselytisation. Within this, the subcategory selected is - harassment, threat, coercion for conversion. Harassment covers a wide range of behaviours of an offensive nature. It is commonly understood as behaviour that demeans, humiliates, and intimidates a person, including threats and coercion. Harassment and threats, in this case, find their root on discriminatory grounds which has the effect of nullifying a person’s rights or infringing upon his freedom to exercise his right specifically owing to the victim’s religious identity. Verbal and physical threats and psychological or physical harassment are often used against Hindu victims because they choose to practice their professed religion. Religious harassment also includes forced and involuntary conversions by harassment, threats or coercion. Coercion includes intimidatory tactics like force-feeding a Hindu victim beef to convert to another religion, forceful circumcision etc. In several cases documented, non-Hindu perpetrators or those who harbour specific animosity towards Hinduism, harass victims simply based on their religious identity. Such cases often also include harassment to ensure the Hindu victim abandons his/her professed religion and adopts the religion of the perpetrator. Such cases where Hindu victims are harassed to convert to the perpetrator’s religion are rooted in animosity towards the victim’s religious identity and are therefore documented as religiously motivated hate crimes. The other primary category relevant here is - Attack not resulting in death. Under this, the subcategory selected is - Attacked for refusal to convert. When there is pressure, threat or coercion employed upon the Hindu victim to convert to a different religion, in several cases, the victim refuses to succumb to the pressure/threats. Once the victim refuses, the perpetrator proceeds to attack/assault the victim owing to his/her refusal to convert. In such cases, the pressure/threat/intimidation/coercion/violence itself is driven by animosity towards the victim’s Hindu faith. The violence then is another hate crime driven by the victim’s refusal to abandon his professed faith, Hinduism, and convert to the religion of a non-Hindu perpetrator. Since the victim’s faith is at the heart of the pressure to convert and the ensuing violence towards the victim, such cases are considered religiously motivated hate crimes. This case carried clear religiously motivated elements because the central objective of the conduct was the religious conversion of a Hindu woman. The victim had travelled to a dargah for a religious programme when she was subjected to pressure to abandon her existing faith and accept Islam. The significance of the incident lay not merely in the fact that coercion occurred, but in the fact that the coercion was directed specifically at changing the religious identity of a Hindu woman. Religion was therefore not incidental to the offence; it was the very purpose around which the conduct revolved. The effort to compel a Hindu woman to renounce her faith and adopt a different religious identity demonstrated a direct challenge to her freedom of conscience, her religious autonomy, and her right to continue practising the faith into which she had been born and raised. The targeting of a Hindu woman for conversion reflected an attempt to erase her existing religious identity and replace it with an Islamic one, making the religious dimension of the offence central from the outset. The victim’s own account further reinforced the religious nature of the incident. She described being subjected to pressure to accept Islam, demonstrating that the conduct was centred on changing her religious identity rather than any ordinary dispute. Her statement showed that the threats she faced was directly linked to conversion and to abandoning her Hindu faith, providing direct evidence of religiously motivated targeting. The religious motivation became even more apparent through the violence that followed her refusal to convert. The moment the Hindu woman resisted the conversion demands, the conduct escalated into threats, molestation, physical assault, confinement, and an attempt on her life. This sequence of events was highly significant because the violence was not random or disconnected from the conversion effort; it followed directly from her refusal to abandon her Hindu faith. The escalation demonstrated that the perpetrators were willing to employ intimidation, physical force, and extreme violence in pursuit of religious compliance. The victim was not targeted because of a personal disagreement or financial dispute but because she refused to submit to demands that she convert to Islam. The use of violence immediately after resistance revealed an intent to punish refusal and compel obedience through fear. The attack itself did not result in death, but the severity of the violence highlighted the extent to which the perpetrators sought to overcome the victim’s resistance. The Hindu woman was beaten, molested, held against her will, and subjected to conduct that placed her life in danger after rejecting conversion demands. This demonstrated that the objective extended beyond persuasion and entered the realm of coercion. The willingness to inflict serious harm upon a Hindu woman for refusing conversion showed that her continued adherence to Hinduism was viewed as an obstacle that had to be overcome through force. Such conduct transformed the incident into a clear example of religiously motivated targeting in which violence functioned as a tool to break resistance to religious conversion. The willingness to subject the Hindu woman to such extreme violence following her refusal indicates that conversion was not a casual suggestion but a demand backed by coercion and force. Such acts stems from inherent hostility towards the victim's professed faith since Abrahamic faiths believe that any non-adherent to the faith is a subject to be dehumanised till they convert. Overall, the pressure to convert a Hindu woman to Islam, the victim’s own description of the coercive conversion efforts, the escalation to molestation and assault when she refused, and the attempt to kill her following that refusal established a clear pattern of religiously motivated conduct. The victim’s Hindu identity was central to both the selection of the target and the nature of the abuse she endured. The incident therefore demonstrated hostility towards the victim’s continued adherence to Hinduism. 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.