Hindu girl driven to suicide following prolonged blackmail, extortion, and pressure to convert to Islam by Muslim man

Case ID : 30a9357 | Location : Auraiya, Uttar Pradesh, India | Date of Incident : Sun, 28 June, 2026

Case ID : 30a9357

Auraiya, Uttar Pradesh, India

28 June, 2026

Hindu girl driven to suicide following prolonged blackmail, extortion, and pressure to convert to Islam by Muslim man

Crimes against women in relationships and other sexual crimes

Blackmailed to convert

Suicide for being forced to or pressured to convert

Case Summary

In the Dibiyapur, Auraiya district, Uttar Pradesh, a 19-year-old Hindu student, Sakshi alias Pallavi, died by suicide after setting herself on fire at her home, following prolonged blackmail, extortion, and pressure to convert to Islam by a Muslim man named Honey alias Tah. According to the victim's family, Sakshi's father, Harnam Singh, was serving in the Indian Army and posted in Leh, Ladakh, while her mother, Premlata, was away at the market, and her brother was out when the incident occurred. The victim, Sakshi, poured petrol over herself and set herself ablaze at around 1 pm on 29 June 2026. Her family rushed her to the local medical college, from where she was referred to the University of Medical Sciences in Saifai. She succumbed to her burn injuries during treatment later that day. After the post-mortem on 30 June 2026, her family placed her body outside their home and demanded legal action against the accused. Following protests by the family, the police registered a case under charges of abetment to suicide and provisions relating to religious conversion, after initially expressing reluctance to include the latter. In her complaint, Sakshi's mother stated that a Muslim man named Honey alias Tah and Ankur had trapped her daughter in a relationship, recorded obscene videos of her, and used those videos to blackmail her. She stated that the accused extorted ₹25 lakh in cash, along with gold and silver jewellery, from the family by threatening to make the videos public. She further said that Honey alias Tah repeatedly pressured Sakshi to convert to Islam and threatened to release the obscene videos if she refused, subjecting her to severe mental harassment. Unable to endure the sustained blackmail, extortion, and conversion pressure, Sakshi ended her life. Based on the complaint, the police registered an FIR and launched an investigation. As of the date of writing this report, the investigation was ongoing, and no arrests had been reported.

Why it is Hate Crime ?

This case has been added to the tracker under the primary category of - Crimes against women in relationships and other sexual crimes. Within it, the sub-category selected is - Blackmailed 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 The other sub-category selected here is - Suicide for being forced to or pressured to convert. When Hindu women are in a relationship with a non-Hindu men, there are cases where the woman faces pressure/threats/violence to convert and change her religious identity 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. In some of these cases, unable to bear the pressure/threat/violence being mounted by the non-Hindu partner to convert, the Hindu woman commits suicide. In such cases, often, threats are also given to the family members of the Hindu woman. Since such cases are driven by specific religious motivations and against the religious identity of the victim, leading to the woman committing suicide, these cases are categorized as a hate crime. The incident went beyond interpersonal abuse and involved the use of criminal intimidation to compel the victim to abandon her faith and embrace Islam, making the victim's religious identity a central element of the abuse she endured. Firstly, the accused deliberately exploited the victim by trapping her in a relationship and using obscene videos as a means of coercion. These videos were used to extort large sums of money and valuables from the victim's family while simultaneously trapping the victim in a cycle of fear and intimidation. These exploitations were not random acts of crime; rather, they functioned as religiously motivated tools aimed at humiliating and dominating a Hindu girl because of her faith. The target was not the victim as an individual, but her Hindu identity, as she was also pressured for conversion. 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. Secondly, the repeated threats to release the obscene videos unless the victim converted to Islam demonstrate that religious conversion was not presented as a matter of free choice or personal conviction. Pressuring a Hindu individual to discard her religious faith and embrace another was a direct attack on her religious identity and dignity. It was not a matter of personal choice; it was coercion rooted in hostility towards the victim's Hindu identity. Such an attempt reflects religious animosity because the act was not simply about personal differences but about erasing the victim’s Hindu faith, making it a religiously motivated crime. Further, the prolonged combination of blackmail, extortion, and sustained pressure to convert created an environment of relentless psychological trauma. In such cases, 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. Thirdly, the sustained coercion exerted upon the victim was of such intensity that it ultimately drove her to take her own life. When pressure to abandon one's faith is combined with persistent intimidation and coercive tactics, it ceases to be merely an accompanying circumstance and instead becomes a powerful instrument of psychological domination. The fact that the victim took her own life demonstrates the grave impact that religiously motivated coercion had on her. Such conduct reflects religious animosity because the victim's continued adherence to Hinduism was treated as something to be overcome through coercion rather than respected as a matter of personal belief. The use of sustained pressure to compel a Hindu individual to renounce her faith represents a targeted violation of her religious freedom and personal autonomy, making the religious dimension of the abuse an aggravating feature of the offence. For these reasons, this case has been included in the Hinduphobia Tracker as it reflects the coercive targeting of a Hindu woman through blackmail, sexual exploitation, financial extortion, and sustained pressure to convert to Islam. 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: Although two accused persons were named in the FIR, only one perpetrator has been counted in the Hinduphobia Tracker. Honey alias Tah has been recorded because, according to the complaint, he was the individual who pressured the Hindu victim to convert to Islam, establishing the religious element relevant to this tracker. While Ankur was also accused of participating in the blackmail, extortion, and other criminal acts against the victim, the available information does not indicate that he participated in, or shared the religious motive behind, the conversion pressure. Accordingly, he has not been counted as a perpetrator for the purposes of this tracker.