Hindu woman lured into marriage and pressured to convert to Islam by Muslim man posing as Hindu in Lucknow

Case ID : 30aa11a | Location : Lucknow, Uttar Pradesh, India | Date of Incident : Fri, 24 August, 2012

Case ID : 30aa11a

Lucknow, Uttar Pradesh, India

24 August, 2012

Hindu woman lured into marriage and pressured to convert to Islam by Muslim man posing as Hindu in Lucknow

Crimes against women in relationships and other sexual crimes

Man pretends to be Hindu

Name Changed

Forced conversion after marriage

Case Summary

In Lucknow, Uttar Pradesh, a Hindu woman named Poornima Singh was lured into marriage by a Muslim man who posed as a Hindu. The accused, identified as Adnan, introduced himself as Veer Pratap Singh and presented himself as a Hindu to deceive Poornima into marrying him. She was subsequently pressured to convert to Islam by Adnan and his family. According to reports, Poornima had met Adnan in Lucknow, where he was working as a property dealer while she was employed at Shakti Bhavan. According to Poornima, Adnan approached her while posing as a Hindu man named Veer Pratap Singh. She said that he deliberately presented himself as a Rajput to lure her into a relationship and marriage, as she herself belonged to the Rajput Hindu community. The victim married him in 2012, believing him to be Veer Pratap Singh. The couple subsequently had three children. After the marriage, she discovered that his real name was Adnan and that he was a Muslim. She also came to know that he had already married a Muslim woman named Ameena in 2003. Poornima further stated that Adnan and his family began pressuring her to convert to Islam. She said that she was made to live in another house, which was also being sold. When she tried to return to Adnan’s residence, Ameena and Adnan’s family told her that she could stay there only if she followed Islamic rules and converted to Islam. She was subsequently subjected to continued pressure to convert. The victim further revealed that Adnan, who was originally from Azamgarh, Uttar Pradesh, was arrested in 2016 in connection with the murder of a person and was sent to jail. In 2021, Poornima slipped into a coma. After recovering, she said that the harassment by Adnan’s family continued and that she was repeatedly troubled and pressured to convert to Islam. The matter came to light on 25 August 2026, when Poornima went to Adnan’s residence in Bakhalis Bazaar, Jiyanpur, in Azamgarh, Uttar Pradesh, seeking justice. She staged a protest outside the house, which continued for around two hours. Jiyanpur police later arrived at the spot and spoke to her. Following counselling by the police, she ended her protest. Following her protest, Poornima was called to the police station, where discussions between both sides continued until late that night. She stated that she would take an extreme step, including suicide, if she did not receive justice. Poornima further said that despite her previous complaint, no action had been taken against Adnan or his family by the police. At the time of writing this report, the police investigation was ongoing.

Why it is Hate Crime ?

This case is being added to the tracker under the primary category: Crimes against women in relationships or other sexual crimes. The subcategory selected is: Man pretends to be Hindu. The tertiary category selected 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 malafide 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 subcategory selected 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 case, a Hindu woman was deceived into marriage by a Muslim man who concealed his religious identity and posed as a Hindu. Following the marriage, she was also pressured to convert to Islam by the accused and his family. Taken together, these acts demonstrated a pattern of religious targeting and coercion, making this incident an example of a hate crime driven by anti-Hindu animosity. Firstly, the perpetrator's act of deception by presenting himself as a Hindu demonstrated a clear bias and malicious intent towards the victim's religious identity. By hiding his true identity and introducing himself as Veer Pratap Singh, the accused manipulated the Hindu woman's trust and targeted her under false pretences, indicating a deliberate effort to exploit her based on her religious background. His deception also deprived the victim of her right to make an informed decision about whom she chose to marry, as she entered into the marriage believing that he was a Hindu. The accused's deliberate decision to hide his Muslim identity and assume a Hindu identity therefore strongly underscored the religious motive behind the crime. In such instances, identity concealment is not merely a deceptive tactic for personal reasons but a calculated strategy rooted in religious profiling and targeting. The accused was aware of the victim's Hindu identity and circumvented the religious barrier by falsely presenting himself as Hindu, which directly pointed to a religiously driven intent. Such targeted victimisation based on religion demonstrated a fundamental disregard for the victim's religious identity and beliefs. This deception reflects a larger pattern where Hindu women are specifically singled out using false identities by Muslim men. Such targeted victimisation based on religion demonstrates a fundamental disregard for Hinduism and exposes deeper animosity towards Hindu women and their beliefs, making it a religiously driven hate crime. Following this, the victim was repeatedly pressured to convert to Islam by the perpetrator and his family. Forcing or coercing an individual to abandon their religion strikes at the core of their religious autonomy, personal liberty and fundamental right to freely practise and maintain their faith. In this case, the repeated pressure to discard her Hindu identity demonstrated a religiously driven motive, where the victim's Hindu identity was treated as a barrier that had to be removed before she could be fully accepted within the perpetrator's family. The attempt to make her abandon Hinduism and impose Islam upon her reflected a mindset of religious supremacism, where her existing faith was treated as something inferior or unacceptable, and Islam was sought to be imposed upon her. Such conduct demonstrated deep-seated hostility towards Hinduism and constituted a clear instance of a religiously driven hate crime. The involvement of the accused's family in pressuring the victim to convert further demonstrated that this was not an isolated act by a single individual. Their participation, alongside the perpetrator, indicated a coordinated and premeditated pattern in which the Hindu woman was first deceived into a relationship and marriage and was subsequently subjected to religious coercion. The collective involvement of family members strengthened the pattern of targeting and exploitation, demonstrating a concerted attempt to trap the victim in a vulnerable situation and then pressure her to abandon her Hindu faith. Some might question why the victim came forward after such a long period to speak about her ordeal. However, the circumstances of the case highlighted the significant social, emotional and practical barriers that delay a victim from seeking help or speaking out. The victim was made to live in a false marriage with the perpetrator, who was already married to another woman, and subsequently had three children with her. The marriage and the presence of children placed her in a deeply vulnerable position, making it significantly more difficult to leave the exploitative relationship or approach the authorities due to concerns about social stigma, family pressure, financial dependence and the future of her children. Fear of retaliation and prolonged exposure to coercion contributed to her delayed decision to seek justice. The fact that she came forward after a considerable period therefore did not erase or diminish any of the suffering she endured, nor did the passage of time lessen the religiously motivated intent behind the targeting and coercion she faced, making this a clear case of a religiously driven hate crime. Since this case meets the parameters of a hate crime, it is being added to the Hate Crime Database of the Hinduphobia Tracker. Disclaimer: The Hinduphobia Tracker records incident dates based on when the victim's ordeal begins rather than when an incident is reported by the media. In this case, the earliest point in the timeline was 2012, when the victim married the perpetrator. The only other specific date mentioned was 25 August 2026, when the victim went to the perpetrator's house and staged a protest. Hence, 25 August 2012 was selected as the indicative incident date for documentation purposes only. In this case, the perpetrator, Adnan, along with his family, was involved in pressuring the victim to convert to Islam. However, only two individuals were specifically identified by name: Adnan and his wife, Ameena. As the total number of family members involved was neither specified nor individually identified, a conservative estimate of two perpetrators was recorded for documentation purposes only. In this case, the victim's ordeal began in Lucknow, Uttar Pradesh, where she first met the perpetrator. Hence, the location of the incident was recorded as Lucknow, Uttar Pradesh.