Hindu woman lured and blackmailed with obscene videos for conversion by Muslim man posing as Hindu; raped after refusing to convert

Case ID : 30aa18f | Location : Indore, Madhya Pradesh, India | Date of Incident : Tue, 27 August, 2019

Case ID : 30aa18f

Indore, Madhya Pradesh, India

27 August, 2019

Hindu woman lured and blackmailed with obscene videos for conversion by Muslim man posing as Hindu; raped after refusing to convert

Crimes against women in relationships and other sexual crimes

Man pretends to be Hindu

Name Changed

Forced conversion before marriage

Assault or threat upon refusal to convert

Rape for refusal to convert

Case Summary

In Indore, Madhya Pradesh, a 27-year-old Hindu woman was deceived into relationship by a Muslim man named Warish Sheikh, by pretending to be Hindu. He sexually exploited her and recorded obscene videos of her, which he used to blackmail her for religious conversion. According to the complaint filed by the victim, she came into contact with the accused, Waris Sheikh, through a friend in 2019 (some reports mentions this to be 2020). While establishing contact with her, the accused introduced himself as a Hindu man named Veeru, concealing his Muslim religious identity. They remained in contact for around six months. On 8 February 2020, Warish took the victim to the AR Hotel behind Bombay Hospital on the pretext of showing her a film, where he sexually exploited her and recorded objectionable photographs and videos of her. When she asked him to delete the material, he assured her that he would do so but did not remove them. She later discussed marriage with him, following which he began distancing himself from her. In 2022, Warish contacted her again and said that he wanted to marry her. When she refused, he began threatening to circulate the objectionable material. The victim later learnt that Warish was real name was Warish Sheikh, son of Rafiq Sheikh, rather than “Viru” and that he was a Muslim. When the victim confronted him over concealing his identity, he continued to threaten her. The complaint further revealed that Warish pressured her to marry him and convert to Islam. When she refused to convert, he threatened to make the intimate material public and sexually assaulted her again. She remained silent because of fear and discontinued contact with him. She later learnt that the accused had circulated her obscene videos and informed her sister, who advised her to approach the police. She subsequently went to the Lasudia police station with her family and submitted a written complaint. Based on the complaint, Lasudia police registered an FIR under various provisions, including the Madhya Pradesh Freedom of Religion Act, and initiated an investigation. Police also formed a team to locate and arrest Warish, who was absconding at the time of the reporting.

Why it is Hate Crime ?

The primary category selected in this case is- Crimes against women in relationships and other sexual crimes. The subcategory selected is- Man pretends to be Hindu. The tertiary categories selected are- 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 sub-category selected is- Forced conversion before marriage. 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 both the situations, the methods used to force the victim to convert her religion often revolve around force-feeding beef, forcing her to wear hijab, forcing her to read the Kalma or even pressurizing the victim to do ‘Nikah’, which is marriage under Islamic law, with a prerequisite being conversion to Islam. Cases where a Hindu woman consensually converts to Islam in a relationship will be left out of the hate crime database, even though it could be argued in several cases that the conversion was a result of religious brainwashing. The other sub-category selected here is - Assault or 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. In this case, the accused used a Hindu name as a deliberate religious marker to deceive the victim. This itself is a clear manifestation of bias and malicious intent towards the victim's religion. By concealing his true identity, he exploited her trust, targeting her under false pretences. This indicates a premeditated intent to manipulate her based on her religious background. In cases like these, the tactic of adopting a false Hindu identity to manipulate and "ensnare" a Hindu individual is not just an act of personal betrayal but can also be interpreted as an expression of disdain or disregard for Hinduism and its customs that reflects a deeper animosity towards Hindus and their beliefs. The clearest hate-related element was the demand that the Hindu victim abandon her religion and convert to Islam in order to marry the accused. This transformed the situation from an interpersonal relationship dispute into coercion directed at the victim’s religious identity. 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 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. Her refusal to change her faith was followed by threats involving the intimate material, creating pressure that targeted both her personal autonomy and her ability to retain her religious identity. Thus, the sexual exploitation and blackmail functioned directly as tools to force religious conversion. The perpetrator threatened to release her private videos specifically because she refused to accept Islam. Using her dignity, bodily autonomy, and social respect as weapons to force her to change her religion turned the sexual offences into a targeted hate crime. 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. Furthermore, the second sexual assault was particularly significant to the religious dimension of the case because it occurred in the context of the victim’s refusal to convert to Islam. The sequence demonstrated that sexual violence was being used alongside blackmail and intimidation to punish or overcome her refusal to comply with the conversion demand. This made the assault more than an isolated act of sexual violence: in the context described by the victim, it formed part of a coercive effort in which her physical and sexual autonomy was violated after she resisted a demand concerning her religious identity. The use of sexual violence in response to her refusal therefore strengthened the religious-motivation element of the case. His final demand for her to convert before marriage proved the deep religious hostility behind the abuse. He forced her to choose between facing public shame or giving up her Hindu faith to marry him. This distinction is important in assessing the hate-crime dimension: the victim was targeted in relation to her status as a Hindu, with her existing religious identity treated as something that had to be surrendered for marriage. The main goal of his continuous threats and psychological pressure was to erase her religious identity entirely. This crime fit a larger, well-documented pattern of targeting Hindu women through fake relationships. It was this exact type of religious targeting that led to the creation of the Madhya Pradesh Freedom of Religion Act. The case demonstrated how deception, sexual blackmail, and fear were used together to force a victim to abandon her religion against her will. 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 the dates of incidents based on when the victim's ordeal began rather than when it was reported by the media. In this case, media reports stated that the victim first met the accused in 2019 but did not mention the exact date when their interaction began. Hence, 28 August 2019, an indicative date within the reported year of first contact, was recorded as the incident date. This is recorded for documentation purposes only.