Hindu woman abducted, converted to Islam and forced into marriage by Muslim man in Uttar Pradesh

Case ID : 30a8e48 | Location : Nawabganj, Uttar Pradesh, India | Date of Incident : Wed, 3 June, 2026

Case ID : 30a8e48

Nawabganj, Uttar Pradesh, India

3 June, 2026

Hindu woman abducted, converted to Islam and forced into marriage by Muslim man in Uttar Pradesh

Crimes against women in relationships and other sexual crimes

Forced conversion before marriage

Forced to do Nikah

Forced to follow non-Hindu religious practices

Case Summary

A 19-year-old Hindu woman from the Nawabganj police station area was lured into a relationship by a Muslim man, Muzaid Ali, who subsequently abducted her, forcibly converted her to Islam, and married her. He coerced her into reciting the Kalma and performing Namaz, and was preparing to take her to Mumbai when he was caught. Police arrested the accused on the second day of the marriage and recovered the victim safely before he could take her out of the state. According to the complaint filed by the victim's mother on 4 June 2026, the family discovered that the young woman was missing from their home on the morning of 4 June after she disappeared during the night. During their search, the family learned that Muzaid Ali, Jabir's son, had enticed her away and fled with her. Following the complaint, police registered a case and launched a search operation. Two police teams were constituted to trace the victim and arrest the accused. Acting on specific intelligence, a team led by Nawabganj police apprehended 23-year-old Muzaid Ali near the Kalakankar underpass on June 9, 2026 (Tuesday). At the time of his arrest, Muzaid Ali was found in possession of a marriage contract executed on an e-stamp paper. During the investigation, it emerged that the victim had been converted to Islam and married to the accused. Police stated that Muzaid Ali had been making the victim recite the Kalma and perform Namaz and was preparing to take her to Mumbai before he was intercepted. Based on the victim's statement, police added charges relating to kidnapping, forced marriage, criminal intimidation, and unlawful religious conversion. The victim was recovered safely, while the accused was taken into custody. Police stated that a detailed investigation into the case remains ongoing.

Why it is Hate Crime ?

This incident has been added in the tracker under the category- Crimes against women in relationships and other sexual crimes. Within this, the subcategory selected is- Forced conversion before marriage, and the tertiary category selected are- Forced to do Nikah and Forced to follow non-Hindu religious practices. 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 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 pressurising 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 clearest religious marker in this case was the forced conversion of the Hindu victim to Islam. According to the police investigation and the victim's statement, the accused did not merely lure the woman into a relationship and marry her. He first converted her and then solemnised the marriage. This sequence is significant because it demonstrates that the religious transformation of the victim was treated as a prerequisite to the relationship rather than an incidental consequence of it. Another important marker was the effort to make the victim recite the Kalma and perform Namaz. These are core declarations and practices of the Islamic faith. Their imposition on the victim indicates that the objective extended beyond maintaining a personal relationship and entered the realm of religious conformity. The victim was not simply expected to remain with the accused but was required to adopt Islamic beliefs and practices, thereby abandoning her existing Hindu identity. The abduction itself further reinforces the coercive nature of the conversion. The victim was removed from her family and support system, creating conditions in which resistance became significantly more difficult. By isolating her from those who could protect or advise her, the accused was able to exert greater control over her decisions and actions. The conversion, therefore, did not occur in a setting of free choice but in circumstances marked by vulnerability and dependency. This case, therefore, goes beyond abduction or unlawful marriage. The victim's Hindu identity was directly targeted through a process that involved isolation, religious conversion, the imposition of Islamic practices, and marriage following the conversion. The evidence indicates that the accused sought not merely a relationship with the victim but her religious transformation. By compelling a Hindu woman to abandon her faith and adopt another religion under coercive circumstances, the accused attacked her religious identity. For this reason, the case qualifies as a religiously motivated hate crime and has been included in the tracker.