Hindu woman subjected to prolonged sexual exploitation, blackmail and pressure to convert to Islam by Muslim man

Case ID : 30aa1a5 | Location : Lucknow, Uttar Pradesh, India | Date of Incident : Wed, 28 August, 2024

Case ID : 30aa1a5

Lucknow, Uttar Pradesh, India

28 August, 2024

Hindu woman subjected to prolonged sexual exploitation, blackmail and pressure to convert to Islam by Muslim man

Crimes against women in relationships and other sexual crimes

Forced conversion before marriage

Blackmailed to convert

Assault or threat upon refusal to convert

Leaves Hindu partner upon refusal to convert

Case Summary

In Lucknow, Uttar Pradesh, a married Hindu woman, a mother of four, was targeted, sexually exploited and pressured for religious conversion to Islam by a Muslim man named Mohammad Rehan. For approximately two years, she was sexually exploited under the false pretext of marriage. According to reports, the Hindu woman lived in a rented accommodation in Mohanlalganj and worked at a private company. During this time, she came into contact with the accused, Mohammad Rehan, a resident of Bhitahara in Barabanki, who was working at the same company. The accused lured her into a relationship, gaining her trust by promising to marry her. Over the course of their relationship, she became pregnant, following which Rehan gave her abortion pills to terminate her pregnancy. The victim revealed that when she sought marriage, Rehan instead pressured her to convert to Islam. When she resisted the demand, he threatened to make obscene videos of her in public and use them to defame her. She also stated that Rehan later left for Mumbai on the pretext of attending his brother's wedding and subsequently refused to marry her over the phone. An obscene video involving the victim was also circulated on social media. Subsequently, the Hindu woman submitted a written complaint against Rehan at Mohanlalganj Police Station. The police initially did not register a case, claiming that the matter was under examination. After the matter was subsequently highlighted on social media by social workers, the police registered an FIR based on her complaint. Mohanlalganj Inspector Ram Babu Singh confirmed that a case had been registered and stated that the police were investigating the matter. Police found that Rehan had left for Mumbai and began searching for him. The accusations, including the circumstances surrounding the sexual exploitation, abortion pills, obscene videos and pressure for religious conversion, remained subject to the police investigation.

Why it is Hate Crime ?

The incident has been added to the tracker under the primary category: Crimes against women in relationships and other sexual crimes. The subcategory 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 subcategory selected for this case is: Blackmailed to convert. When Hindu women are in a relationship with non-Hindu men, there are cases where the woman is blackmailed to convert her religion, owing to her religious identity as a Hindu. Such relationships may be consensual, with the religious identity of the non-Hindu man known to the victim; however, there could be cases where the relationship is not consensual, and the non-Hindu man starts blackmailing a Hindu woman to convert her religion. In these cases, it is often seen that the Hindu woman is blackmailed with intimate photos and/or videos, threats of harm to her or her family, threats of violence, etc. Such cases are driven by specific religious motivations and against the religious identity of the victim and are therefore qualified as hate crimes. 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 - Leaves Hindu partner upon 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. However, when the Hindu woman refuses to convert, the non-Hindu man ends the relationship or divorces the woman, as the case might be. 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 change her religious identity and upon her refusal, ends the relationship. Cases where the Hindu woman converts to Islam and does not file a complaint about the force, or threat after she refuses to convert to Islam, are not considered a part of the hate tracker. The case was religiously motivated because the Hindu woman’s faith became a direct point of pressure within the relationship. The abuse was not limited to a personal or sexual dispute. The perpetrator sought to make the woman abandon Hinduism and adopt Islam, making her religious identity central to the targeting. The clearest indication of the religious motive was the pressure placed on her to convert to Islam. This was not a voluntary spiritual choice initiated by the woman. Conversion was introduced as a demand when she sought marriage, showing that her continued adherence to Hinduism was treated as an obstacle that had to be removed. The pressure was therefore directed specifically at changing her religious identity. 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. The promise of marriage also created a position of trust that could later be exploited for religious purposes. The woman had remained in the relationship believing that it would culminate in marriage. Once that trust had been established, the conversion demand was introduced. Using an intimate relationship and the expectation of marriage to influence a Hindu woman into abandoning her faith reflected manipulation aimed at altering her religious allegiance. The use of obscene material as a threat further transformed the conversion pressure into coercion. The possibility of public humiliation and damage to the victim’s reputation was used to intimidate her while she was being pressured to change her religion. The intention was to break the victim down, emotionally, physically, and spiritually, so that she could be converted. In this context, blackmail became a tool for weakening her ability to freely refuse conversion and continue practising her own faith, which reflected the perpetrators' deep-seated animosity and hatred towards the victim's religious identity that is Hinduism. The sequence therefore showed a connected pattern: trust was developed through the relationship, the woman’s Hindu identity subsequently became subject to pressure, conversion to Islam was demanded, and intimidation was used when she resisted. The religious element was thus not incidental to the abuse. The effort to make a Hindu woman relinquish her faith through manipulation and coercive pressure formed the basis for documenting the case as a religiously motivated hate crime. Such acts are carried out by Muslim perpetrators due to indoctrination by Islamic theology, which advocates that all non-Muslims (referred to as kafirs) are inferior and subject to subjugation unless they convert to Islam or live under Islamic rule (dhimmitude). These ideas are not mere abstractions; they manifest in actions where non-Muslims, especially Hindus in India, are seen as targets for religious domination, coercion, or humiliation. This theological framework fosters an "us versus them" mindset, in which any assertion of Hindu identity or religious freedom is seen not only as undesirable but as a threat to Islamic supremacy. As a result, perpetrators who are shaped by such teachings feel justified, even morally obligated, to harass, suppress, or violently attack Hindus, particularly when Hindus assert their religious rights or resist conversion. As a result, Muslim perpetrators invoke such doctrines to justify coercive attempts to convert non-Muslims, particularly Hindus, portraying conversion as a means of abandoning Kufr (a state of disbelief in Islam or disbelief in Islam) and attaining salvation. Such acts, therefore, are not isolated but driven by a broader ideological hostility towards Hindus as non-believers and reflect an attempt to impose religious dominance. Since this case was also not a random isolated incident of grooming of a minor but a premeditated attack motivated by bias and hatred against the Hindu community, which is a defining feature of hate crimes, this has been added to the tracker. Disclaimer: It is important to clarify that none of the media sources covering this case has specified the exact date when the victim's ordeal began, though it is mentioned that she came into contact with the accused about two years ago, in 2024. Thus, to document this case, we have used an indicative date, 27 August 2024, as a placeholder to represent the beginning of her suffering. While media coverage of the incident emerged on 27 August 2026, the Hinduphobia Tracker records the incident based on when the victim’s ordeal began, not when it was reported.