Hindu woman consumes acid after being subjected to harassment, sexual exploitation and forced conversion pressure by Muslim man

Case ID : 30a904d | Location : Rajkot, Gujarat, India | Date of Incident : Tue, 17 June, 2025

Case ID : 30a904d

Rajkot, Gujarat, India

17 June, 2025

Hindu woman consumes acid after being subjected to harassment, sexual exploitation and forced conversion pressure by Muslim man

Crimes against women in relationships and other sexual crimes

Man pretends to be Hindu

Pattern of targeting Hindu women

Forced conversion before marriage

Blackmailed to convert

Case Summary

A married Hindu woman from Rajkot, Gujarat, was deceived, sexually exploited, blackmailed, and pressured to convert to Islam by a Muslim man named Afzal Sida, who concealed his religious identity, with the assistance of a woman identified as Anisha Kashmiri. According to the complaint filed with the police, the victim came into contact with Afzal through Instagram around a year ago, in 2025, after being introduced by Anisha. Afzal initially concealed his Muslim identity and introduced himself as "Ziddi Boy", and the victim only became aware of his religious background after some time. Upon learning this, she attempted to end the relationship, but both Afzal and Anisha continued contacting her and pressured her to maintain ties with him. The victim stated that Anisha persuaded her to accompany her to Morbi, Gujarat, and subsequently took her to a dargah, where religious rituals were performed, including tying a black thread around her wrist and giving her water to drink. Thereafter, Afzal repeatedly pressured her to convert to Islam, leave her husband, and live with him. The victim said that Anisha actively encouraged her to abandon her marriage and facilitated continued contact between her and Afzal despite her efforts to distance herself. According to the complaint, Anisha later took the victim to a hotel on Gondal Road under the pretext of spending time together. Afzal was already present at the location, and the victim stated that she was sent into a room with him, where he forcibly raped her. She further stated that objectionable photographs and videos were recorded during the encounter. When she subsequently decided to sever all contact with Afzal, he used the recorded material to blackmail her, threatening to circulate the images and videos on social media. The victim stated that the threats, blackmail, and continued pressure to convert to Islam caused her severe mental distress and fear of public humiliation. Unable to cope with the prolonged harassment, intimidation, and conversion pressure, the victim consumed acid in an attempt to end her life. Her husband intervened promptly and rushed her to the hospital, where her life was saved. After recovering, she approached the police and narrated the entire sequence of events. Based on her complaint, Rajkot Police registered a case against Afzal Sida and Anisha Kashmi and initiated an investigation. The victim also informed the authorities that Afzal had similarly targeted several other Hindu girls in the past. Police subsequently began an investigation into the case and gathered evidence under the relevant legal provisions.

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: Pattern of targeting Hindu women. 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 sub-category selected here 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. The other sub-category selected here is - Blackmail 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. This case has been added to the tracker because a Hindu woman was lured into a relationship by a Muslim man, Ajzal Sida, who concealed his religious identity. The accused concealed his true religious identity when initiating contact with the Hindu victim through social media. By hiding his identity and cultivating a relationship under false pretences, he exploited the victim's trust and targeted her specifically as a Hindu woman. Such deliberate concealment of religious identity to establish an intimate relationship demonstrates a calculated effort to manipulate the victim and reflects disregard for her religious beliefs and autonomy. The act of assuming or concealing one's identity in order to gain the confidence of a Hindu victim is not merely a personal deception but also an attack on the victim's ability to make informed choices regarding relationships, marriage, and religion. 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, when the victim attempted to distance herself from the accused, she was repeatedly pressured to leave her husband, abandon her existing life, and convert to Islam. The pressure to renounce her faith and adopt another religion was not incidental to the relationship but formed a central component of the accused's conduct. Attempts to compel a Hindu individual to discard her religious identity and embrace another faith constitute a direct assault on her religious freedom and personal dignity. Such conduct reflects hostility towards the victim's continued adherence to Hinduism and demonstrates an intention to erase and replace her existing religious identity. Thirdly, the victim was taken to a dargah where religious rituals were performed upon her, including the tying of a black thread around her wrist and the administration of water as part of the process used to influence her towards conversion. In Islam, marriage to a non-Muslim partner is prohibited, which is why she was pressured for religious conversion. Therefore, these actions went beyond ordinary interpersonal coercion and amounted to an intrusion upon her religious autonomy. Subjecting a Hindu woman to Islamic rituals without her genuine consent represents an attempt to weaken her attachment to her own religion and draw her into a different religious framework. Such actions were an attack on her Hindu identity and a manifestation of prejudice against her faith. Furthermore, the accused sexually exploited the victim and recorded objectionable photographs and videos, which were subsequently used as tools of intimidation and blackmail. In this context, the sexual exploitation, blackmail, and coercion serve a dual purpose: physical subjugation and religious humiliation. The intention was to break the victim down, emotionally, physically, and spiritually, so that she could be converted. This was not random violence; it was systematic, targeted, and rooted in religious animosity. Moreover, the sustained harassment inflicted upon the victim was so severe that it drove her to attempt suicide by consuming acid. The victim endured prolonged mental torture in the form of deception, religious conversion pressure, sexual exploitation, threats, and blackmail through compromising photographs and videos. The constant fear of public humiliation, combined with relentless pressure to abandon her faith, leave her husband, and submit to the accused's demands, created an unbearable psychological burden. The fact that the victim felt compelled to take such an extreme step demonstrates the magnitude of the trauma the accused was willing to inflict on her for religious conversion. This was not a single isolated act but a continuing pattern of intimidation and coercion that systematically eroded her emotional well-being. The suicide attempt underscores the devastating impact of the accused's actions and highlights the extent to which the victim was persecuted, harassed, and psychologically broken down in pursuit of the accused's objectives. 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: It is important to clarify that none of the media sources covering this case have specified the exact date when the victim's ordeal began, though it is mentioned that she came into contact with the accused in 2025. Thus, to document this case, we have used an indicative date, 18 June 2025, as a placeholder to represent the beginning of her suffering. While media coverage of the incident emerged on 18 June 2025, the Hinduphobia Tracker records the incident based on when the victim’s ordeal began, not when it was reported.