Hindu ITI student accuses Muslim classmate of forcing her to conert to Islam and perform nikah in Seoni, Madhya Pradesh

Case ID : 30a9705 | Location : Seoni, Madhya Pradesh, India | Date of Incident : Tue, 14 July, 2026

Case ID : 30a9705

Seoni, Madhya Pradesh, India

14 July, 2026

Hindu ITI student accuses Muslim classmate of forcing her to conert to Islam and perform nikah in Seoni, Madhya Pradesh

Crimes against women in relationships and other sexual crimes

Forced conversion before marriage

Forced to do Nikah

Assault or threat upon refusal to convert

Case Summary

A Hindu student studying in the Industrial Training Institute (ITI) in the Seoni district in Madhya Pradesh submitted a written complaint stating that her Muslim classmate, Sohail Khan (also known as Wahid Khan), had pressured her to convert to Islam and marry him through nikah. The victim came forward to narrate her ordeal after a video went viral, in which some individuals were seen hitting Sohail in a field near Kheritek in the Dhunda Seoni police station area. According to media reports, Sohail was assaulted over a dispute that stemmed from what was claimed to be a 'love affair'. After the video went viral, the victim came forward to reveal that Sohail had befriended her only to later force her to convert to Islam and marry him. She stated that he persistently sent her WhatsApp messages, followed her, obstructed her while she travelled to the ITI, and threatened to kill her and her family when she refused to undergo religious conversion. Fed up with the sustained harassment, the victim sought legal action against him and submitted copies of her complaint to the Women's Police Station and Kotwali Police Station in Seoni on July 15, 2026 In a video circulated on X, the student reiterated her account and stated that Sohail had harassed her while she travelled to the ITI, repeatedly pressured her to convert to Islam, and threatened to kill her if she refused. She said that after informing her family about his conduct, the matter was taken forward, and she appealed for justice. Police stated that the complaint was under investigation and that further legal action would be taken based on the evidence gathered during the investigation.

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 this, the first secondary category selected is Forced conversion before marriage. The selected tertiary category is "Forced to do Nikah". The victim stated that she faced intimidation after refusing to accede to the demand for religious conversion. When Hindu women are in a relationship with non-Hindu men, there are cases where the woman faces threats or assault after she refuses to convert and change her religious identity owing to pressure/force 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 to Islam and upon her refusal, assaults or threatens the victim. Such cases are driven by specific religious motivations and against the religious identity of the victim and are therefore qualified as hate crimes. Cases where the Hindu woman converts to Islam and does not file a complaint about the force or threat, are not considered a part of the hate tracker, even though, it may be argued that the woman was brainwashed or threatened to convert to Islam. The second subcategory selected is: Assault and threat upon refusal to convert. When Hindu women are in a relationship with non-Hindu men, there are cases where the woman faces threats or assault after she refuses to convert and change her religious identity owing to pressure/force 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 to Islam and upon her refusal, assaults or threatens the victim. Such cases are driven by specific religious motivations and against the religious identity of the victim and are therefore qualified as hate crimes. Cases where the Hindu woman converts to Islam and does not file a complaint about the force or threat, are not considered a part of the hate tracker, even though, it may be argued that the woman was brainwashed or threatened to convert to Islam. The victim stated that Sohail first befriended her before pressuring her to convert to Islam and marry him. 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 this case, the pressure to convert to Islam emerged after the accused had established a relationship with the Hindu victim by first befriending her. The demand for religious conversion was accompanied by pressure to marry through nikah, making the abandonment of her Hindu faith a condition for taking the relationship forward rather than a voluntary decision. The victim also stated that she faced stalking, intimidation and death threats after refusing to convert. The escalation following her refusal demonstrated that the coercion was directed specifically at overcoming her resistance to abandoning her Hindu religious identity, rather than arising from an ordinary disagreement within the relationship. The insistence on nikah further proved the religious nature of the coercion. Since the demand for marriage was intrinsically linked to conversion to Islam, it formed part of the broader effort to compel the victim to relinquish her Hindu identity. The victim reiterated these facts in both her written complaint and her subsequent public video statement, indicating a consistent account of the events. The conduct of the accused reveals a clear disregard for the victim's freedom to profess and practise her own faith. Rather than respecting her religious identity and her refusal to abandon it, he sought to make conversion to Islam and marriage through nikah the only acceptable outcome of the relationship. Such actions reflect hostility towards the victim's continued adherence to Hinduism and an unwillingness to accept her decision to remain within her own faith, since Abrahamic faiths believe that any non-adherent to the faith is subject to being dehumanised till they convert. This mindset does not merely tolerate the existence of another faith but seeks its erasure or assimilation. As a result, Hindus are often targeted not because of who they are as individuals, but because of their religious identity. The violence, deception, or humiliation inflicted in such cases is therefore not random, but part of a broader ideological hostility toward Hinduism and its symbols, practices, and adherents. Here, too, the predatory actions stemmed from doctrinal animosity towards the Hindu faith, which is why this case is being documented as a religiously motivated hate crime.