Hindu woman lured into relationship, pressured to convert to Islam for marriage by Muslim man; assaulted and abused with casteist slurs upon resisting

Case ID : 30a973d | Location : Bara Banki, Uttar Pradesh, India | Date of Incident : Wed, 15 July, 2026

Case ID : 30a973d

Bara Banki, Uttar Pradesh, India

15 July, 2026

Hindu woman lured into relationship, pressured to convert to Islam for marriage by Muslim man; assaulted and abused with casteist slurs upon resisting

Crimes against women in relationships and other sexual crimes

Forced conversion before marriage

Assault or threat upon refusal to convert

Rape for refusal to convert

Hate speech against Hindus

Anti-Hindu slurs, mocking faith

Case Summary

In Barabanki, Uttar Pradesh, a Dalit Hindu woman was lured into a relationship on the pretext of marriage by a Muslim man, who subsequently pressured her to convert to Islam. According to the complaint filed by the victim, the two had been in contact over the mobile phone for four to five months, since February 2026. On 16 July 2026, the accused persuaded her to accompany him under the promise of marriage. Trusting his assurances, she left her home carrying a gold ring, a pair of anklets, and approximately ₹6,500 in cash, after which he took her to a relative's house. The victim, who belonged to the Scheduled Caste community, stated that upon reaching the house, several people present informed her that the marriage could only take place if she converted to Islam. She refused to accept the demand. Following her refusal, the accused took her into a room where he attempted to sexually assault her. She managed to escape from the room, after which the people present physically assaulted her with kicks, punches, and sticks, subjected her to casteist abuse, and threatened to kill her. During the incident, her family members reached the location in search of her and were also assaulted before they succeeded in taking her home. The complaint further stated that the accused retained the gold ring, anklets, and ₹6,500 that she had taken with her and did not return them. Based on the victim's complaint, the Ramnagar Police registered a First Information Report under the relevant legal provisions and initiated an investigation. Police stated that further legal action would be taken after examining the available evidence, recording witness statements, and completing the investigation. The identity of the victim was withheld by the police to protect her privacy.

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 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 other sub-category selected here is - Rape for refusal to convert. When Hindu women are in a relationship with 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 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. As the case may be, in such cases, the non-Hindu man forces himself sexually on the Hindu woman when she refuses his advances and pressures to convert her religion. The rape of the woman is often seen as either a punishment for the woman refusing to convert. 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 - Hate speech against Hindus. Within it, the sub-category selected here is - Anti-Hindu slurs, mocking faith. Anti-Hindu slurs and the deliberate mocking of the Hindu faith owing to religious animosity involve the usage of derogatory terms, stereotypes, or offensive references to religious practices, symbols, or figures. One of the common anti-Hindu slurs used against Hindus is “cow-worshipper” and “cow piss drinker”. The intention of using this term is to demean and mock Hindus as a group and their religious beliefs since Hindus consider the cow holy. Additionally, some symbols and the slurs attached to them have a historical context that exacerbates the insult, hate, stereotyping, dehumanisation and oppression against Hindus. Cow worship has been used for centuries to denigrate Hindus, insult their faith and oppress Hindus specifically as a religious group. There has been overwhelming documentation about how cow slaughter has been used to persecute Hindus with cow meat being thrown in temples and places of worship. There has also been overwhelming documentation where cow meat (beef) has been force-fed to Hindus to either forcefully convert them to Islam or denigrate their faith. Apart from cow worship, the Swastika – which holds deep religious significance for the Hindus – has also been misinterpreted and distorted to use as a slur against Hindus. Similarly, the worship of the Shivling has been used by supremacist ideologies and religions to denigrate Hindus owing to religious animosity. Such slurs and denigration stem out of inherent animosity and hate towards Hindus and their faith, therefore, it is categorised as hate speech targeted at Hindus specifically owing to their religious identity. This case has been added to the Hinduphobia Tracker because it involved the coercive targeting of a Dalit Caste Hindu woman by a Muslim man, who lured her with the promise of marriage and subsequently attempted to compel her to abandon her Hindu faith and convert to Islam as a precondition for the marriage. The insistence that she renounce her faith before the marriage could proceed demonstrates that her Hindu identity was treated as an obstacle that had to be erased. The demand for religious conversion was therefore not incidental to the offence but formed an integral part of the accused's conduct. In Islam, marriage to a non-Muslim partner is prohibited, which is why she was pressured for religious conversion. 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 coercive attempts to compel a Hindu individual to abandon her faith constitute an attack on her religious identity and dignity, making this a religiously motivated crime. The events that followed further reinforced the religious motivation behind the offence. When the victim refused to convert, she was subjected to an attempted sexual assault, physical violence, caste-based abuse, and death threats. Often in such cases, sexual violence or threats 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 is systematic, targeted, and rooted in religious animosity. Rather than respecting her decision to retain her faith, the accused and those accompanying him resorted to intimidation and assault. This demonstrates that the hostility was directed not merely at the victim personally but at her refusal to relinquish her Hindu identity. The offence also reflected a broader pattern of grooming through the false promise of marriage. The accused had remained in contact with the victim for several months before persuading her to leave her home by assuring her that he would marry her. This prolonged interaction enabled him to gain her confidence before placing her in an environment where pressure was exerted to convert to Islam. Such deception served as the mechanism through which the victim was isolated from the safety of her home and exposed to coordinated demands for religious conversion. The promise of marriage therefore functioned as a means of facilitating religious coercion rather than representing a genuine commitment to an equal relationship. Furthermore, in this case, the Dalit Hindu woman was also subjected to casteist abuse by the accused. It can be argued that a caste-specific slur is aimed at her micro identity of belonging to the Dalit section of the Hindu community and not her Hindu identity itself. However, as far as Abrahamic religions are concerned, the micro identities of caste, region, and language are secondary. It is the religious identity that drives the animosity of the perpetrator against the Hindu victim. In this case, while the accused hurled caste abuses at the victim, the animosity was driven by his animosity towards Hinduism and Hindus. This incident is therefore not limited to offences of assault, sexual violence, or criminal intimidation. The available facts indicate that the victim's Hindu identity was directly targeted through pressure to convert to Islam before marriage, and that her refusal was met with violence and threats. 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. The earliest date mentioned is 16 July 2026, when the victim went away with the accused. Since Hinduphobia Tracker records the incident based on when the victim’s ordeal began and not when it was reported, we have considered the date of the incident as 16 July 2026, though the media reported the incident on 18 July 2026.