Hindu woman lured, held captive, raped and pressured to convert to Islam by Muslim man; murdered upon refusing conversion

Case ID : 30a93ba | Location : Bengaluru, Karnataka, India | Date of Incident : Tue, 16 June, 2026

Case ID : 30a93ba

Bengaluru, Karnataka, India

16 June, 2026

Hindu woman lured, held captive, raped and pressured to convert to Islam by Muslim man; murdered upon refusing conversion

Crimes against women in relationships and other sexual crimes

Blackmailed to convert

Murder upon refusal to convert

Predatory Proselytisation

Harassment, threats, coercion for conversion

Murdered for refusing to convert

Case Summary

Akshata Indaragi, a 30-year-old Hindu woman from a weaver family in Ilakal, Bagalkot district, Karnataka, was lured, held captive, raped and pressured to convert to Islam by a Muslim man named Nanasaab Budda. Furthermore, when she refused, he tortured her and murdered her inside a rented house near the Patalamma Temple in Jigani, Anekal taluk, Bengaluru, on 17 June 2026. According to reports, the accused, Nanasaab Budda, also referred to as Nanna Saab, had been living with Akshata in the rented house and had gone absconding after the incident. CCTV footage captured him leaving the house before disappearing. During the investigation, police found that Akshata had previously been married to Krishna Indaragi for around 12 years and was the mother of two children. She later met Nanasaab while working in the saree-weaving industry in Ilakal. She moved to Jigani approximately six months before her death, in December 2025, in search of employment at a garment factory, where the two began living together. Subsequently, after befriending her, the accused took her to Bengaluru. There, he kept her confined in a house for nearly two years, repeatedly raped her, took obscene photographs of her, and forced her to convert to Islam. Furthermore, when she refused to convert, he murdered her. Thereafter, neighbours alerted the house owner after noticing that the house had remained locked for several days, and a foul smell was emanating from it. When the police broke open the door, they recovered Akshata's decomposed body. An unnatural death case was initially registered. However, following a post-mortem examination, doctors concluded that she had been strangled, physically assaulted, and murdered, prompting the police to convert the case into a murder investigation. Following the confirmation of murder through the post-mortem report, members of the Bajrang Dal and Hindu Jagran Vedike staged protests outside the Jigani Police Station, describing the incident as a case of "love jihad" and demanding the immediate arrest of the accused and stringent legal action against him. Police continued their search for the absconding accused while the investigation remained ongoing. The investigation also revealed that Nanasaab had another wife. Police formed multiple teams to trace and arrest him while examining CCTV footage, forensic evidence, witness statements, and call records to reconstruct the sequence of events leading to the murder.

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 - 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. The other sub-category selected here is - Murder upon refusal to convert. When Hindu women are in a relationship with non-Hindu men, there are cases where the woman is forced to convert her religion and upon her refusal to do so, the non-Hindu partner murders the victim. 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 pressuring the Hindu woman to convert. In some of these cases, the association could be non-consensual as well or, the religious identity of the non-Muslim man could be previously unknown to the Hindu victim. In such cases, the Hindu woman is first pressurized to change her religion by the non-Hindu man. The pressure could involve threats and/or violence. The trigger to murdering the woman in these cases is her refusal to comply and change her religion under threat and/or force. Such cases are driven by specific religious motivations and against the religious identity of the victim and are therefore qualified as hate crimes. The second primary category selected here is - Predatory Proselytisation. Within it, the sub-category selected here is - Harassment, threats, 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 sub-category selected here is - Murdered for refusing 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 murder 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 murder then is another hate crime driven by the victim’s refusal to abandon his professed faith, Hinduism, and convert to the religion of the non-Hindu perpetrator. Since the victim’s faith is at the heart of the pressure to convert and the ensuing murder of the victim, such cases are considered religiously motivated hate crimes. This case has been added to the Hinduphobia Tracker because the violence against the Hindu victim was accompanied by attempts to erase or alter her religious identity through coercive conversion. Pressuring a Hindu individual to discard her religious faith and embrace another was a direct attack on his 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. Furthermore, the victim was also raped and blackmailed with obscene videos for religious conversion. In such cases, sexual violence or blackmail serves 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. The victim was subjected to sustained pressure to convert to Islam and was ultimately murdered after refusing to convert. The violence was not merely an act of personal domination or exploitation but was linked to hostility towards the victim's continued adherence to her Hindu faith. The killing following her refusal to abandon Hinduism demonstrates that her Hindu identity itself became a point of conflict, thereby giving the crime a distinct religious dimension. In that sense, the violence can be understood as an attack not only on the victim's physical autonomy but also on her freedom of conscience and religious identity, which is why the case falls within the scope of the tracker. 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 victim came into contact with the accused. Therefore, for documentation purposes, we have recorded the date based on when the victim was murdered, 17 June 2026.