Hindu woman deceived by Muslim man posing as Hindu and pressured to convert to Islam in Raipur, Chhattisgarh

Case ID : 30a9a74 | Location : Raipur, Chhattisgarh, India | Date of Incident : Fri, 31 July, 2026

Case ID : 30a9a74

Raipur, Chhattisgarh, India

31 July, 2026

Hindu woman deceived by Muslim man posing as Hindu and pressured to convert to Islam in Raipur, Chhattisgarh

Crimes against women in relationships and other sexual crimes

Man pretends to be Hindu

Name Changed

Forced conversion after marriage

Case Summary

In Raipur, Chhattisgarh, a Hindu woman alleged that she was deceived into a marriage by a Muslim man who concealed his religious identity by introducing himself as “Sonu” and subsequently pressured her to convert to Islam. According to her complaint at the Pandri Police Station, the woman became acquainted with Sufran Sheikh through Instagram around six years ago. He presented himself as “Sonu”, and the two developed a relationship. She later became pregnant, after which he proposed marriage. She left her parental home and began living with him. On the day of the marriage, she reportedly became suspicious after seeing a Maulana at the house. She stated that Sufran told her that Hindus and Muslims were the same, that she could follow her own religion while he followed his, and subsequently she learnt that his actual name was Sufran. The woman further stated that after the marriage, Sufran began pressuring her to accept Islam. She stated that he prevented her from visiting temples and celebrating Hindu festivals, assaulted her when she went to the temple, and instructed her to wear a burqa and offer namaz. According to her complaint, the pressure to change her religious practices intensified after the marriage. After information about the incident became public, a large number of Bajrang Dal workers, led by district president Yogesh Saini, reached the Pandri Police Station and demanded that an FIR be registered immediately and that Sufran Sheikh be arrested without delay. They also pressed for prompt legal action on the woman's complaint. On the other hand, Sufran Sheikh's family denied the woman's statements. They stated that they had accepted her as a member of their family and that after Sufran Sheikh was sent to jail, she herself visited an Aadhaar centre to change her name. The family requested that the matter be investigated impartially. The Pandri Police stated that they had registered a case on the basis of the woman's complaint and were investigating the matter. At the time of the report, no arrest had been made.

Why it is Hate Crime ?

The primary category for this case is: Crime against women in relationships and other sexual crimes. The subcategory for this case is: Man pretends to be Hindu. The tertiary category for this case is: Name Changed. 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 mala fide 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 after marriage. In such cases, a non-Hindu man marries a Hindu woman, and the force/pressure to convert to any Abrahamic faith, like Islam, begins after marriage. 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. The marriage could be under the Special Marriages Act, where neither parties are required to convert their religion for the marriage to be considered legitimate. While the victim in such cases enters matrimony assuming that religious identity is not a barrier, the non-Hindu man starts to pressure the woman to convert her religion after marriage. 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 situations, there is application of force by the perpetrator, including the denial of the woman’s religious rights. Some of the means by which the woman is forced/pressured to convert include force-feeding beef, being forced to read the Kalma, being forced to wear a hijab, forced to undergo Halala, etc. There are several instances where, after marriage, the woman voluntarily converts to Islam. Such cases are often argued to be a result of religious brainwashing, however, for the purpose of documenting religiously motivated hate crimes, in the absence of the victim complaining of forced conversion, such cases do not form a part of the database. In this incident, the perpetrator's deliberate concealment of his religious identity, where he pretended to be a Hindu under the guise of a Hindu name, 'Sonu ', demonstrates a clear bias and malicious intent towards the victim's religion. By hiding his true identity and presenting himself as a Hindu, he specifically targeted a Hindu woman under false pretences, indicating a premeditated effort to establish a relationship that would likely not have been possible had he disclosed his real identity from the beginning. The decision to assume a fake Hindu identity was not merely an act of personal deception but a calculated strategy to overcome the religious barrier that could have prevented the relationship from developing. By introducing himself as "Sonu" instead of Sufran Sheikh, he secured the victim's trust, entered into marriage with her, and built a family life under a false identity. This deprived the victim of her right to make an informed decision regarding one of the most important choices of her life: whom to marry, while concealing a fact that was fundamental to her autonomy and informed consent. Such identity concealment reflects a broader pattern in which Hindu women are specifically targeted through the use of false Hindu identities. The deception was central to the entire relationship, as it enabled the accused to gain access to the victim, marry her, and continue the relationship until his real identity came to light. The deliberate targeting of a Hindu woman through religious impersonation points to a bias against her religious identity and demonstrates a deeper disregard for the autonomy, dignity, and security of Hindu women. This overall shows that the victim was profiled and targeted because she was Hindu, making this a religiously motivated hate crime. The religious dimension of the case was further evident in the pressure exerted on the victim to abandon her Hindu religious practices and adopt Islamic practices after the marriage. The woman stated that the accused prevented her from visiting temples and celebrating Hindu festivals, assaulted her when she went to the temple, and instructed her to wear a burqa and offer namaz. These demands went beyond ordinary marital disagreements or differences in religious practice, as they sought to restrict the victim's ability to practise her own faith while compelling her to conform to the religious practices of the accused. The fact that such pressure followed the concealment of his Muslim identity and marriage under a false Hindu name further demonstrates how religious deception and subsequent conversion pressure were interconnected aspects of the case. By attempting to replace the victim's Hindu religious practices with Islamic observance, the accused sought to interfere directly with her religious identity and autonomy. Accordingly, the conversion pressure constitutes a significant religious component of the offence and reinforces the basis for documenting the incident as a religiously motivated hate crime. It is also important to address a question that often arises in such cases: if the woman discovered that the accused had concealed his religious identity, why did she remain in the relationship for several years? Such questions overlook the realities faced by many women in abusive or deceptive marriages. Walking away from a marriage is rarely an immediate or straightforward decision, especially once a family has been established. Emotional attachment, financial dependence, fear of social stigma, pressure from family, uncertainty about rebuilding one's life, and concerns over the future and custody of children often leave women feeling trapped. Many continue to hope that the situation will improve or fear that leaving will expose them and their children to even greater hardship. The fact that a victim remained in the relationship for years, therefore, should not be interpreted as acceptance of the deception or as evidence that the initial fraud became irrelevant. Instead, it reflects the difficult personal, social, and economic realities that often prevent victims from leaving relationships founded on deception. Overall, the facts indicate that the accused's actions extended beyond ordinary personal deception and demonstrate conduct driven by deliberate religious concealment directed at a Hindu woman. By concealing his Muslim identity and assuming a Hindu identity to establish a relationship and marriage, the accused made the victim's religious identity central to the execution of the offence. Notably, this incident is not an isolated case but part of a broader pattern where Hindu women are deliberately targeted through deception and emotional blackmail for religious conversion and sexual exploitation. This stems 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 predatory actions stem from doctrinal animosity towards the Hindu faith and its adherents. Accordingly, this case qualifies for inclusion in the hate crime database. Disclaimer: The Hinduphobia Tracker records the incident date based on when the victim's ordeal began rather than when the incident was reported in the media. In this case, the victim stated that the accused concealed his identity and entered into a relationship with her approximately six years before the matter came to light, placing the beginning of the incident in 2020. However, as the exact date on which the deception and relationship commenced is not specified in the available sources, 31 July 2026, the date on which the incident was reported has been combined with the year 2020, when the ordeal of the victim began in the media, and accordingly 31 July, 2020 has been recorded as the incident date for documentation purposes.