Hindu woman trapped through identity deception, sexually exploited and forced to convert to Islam; threatened using Chhangur Baba's conversion gang’s name

Case ID : 30aa415 | Location : Balrampur, Uttar Pradesh, India | Date of Incident : Sun, 7 September, 2025

Case ID : 30aa415

Balrampur, Uttar Pradesh, India

7 September, 2025

Hindu woman trapped through identity deception, sexually exploited and forced to convert to Islam; threatened using Chhangur Baba's conversion gang’s name

Crimes against women in relationships and other sexual crimes

Man pretends to be Hindu

Name Changed

Forced conversion before marriage

Forced to eat beef

Blackmailed to convert

Case Summary

In Utraula, Balrampur, Uttar Pradesh, a Hindu woman from the Tanda area of Ambedkar Nagar was trapped in a relationship with a Muslim man. He concealed his religious identity, sexually exploited her over several years, blackmailed her with intimate photos and videos, forcibly converted her to Islam, and threatened to kill her and her two daughters. The accused also attempted to force-feed cow meat to the victim and assaulted her for refusing to eat it. He also tried to intimidate her into silence, invoking Chhangur Baba's name. According to reports, the accused introduced himself as Raju, while his real identity was later revealed to be Aijaz Khan. The woman came to Utraula about 10–12 years earlier to visit her aunt and later began working at a private hospital in the area. During this period, she came into contact with the accused, who worked as an ambulance driver at the hospital. He concealed his Muslim identity, presented himself as Raju, and gradually became close to her. The accused repeatedly established physical relations with the woman against her will and recorded photographs and videos. He then used those recordings to blackmail and exploit her continuously by threatening to make them public. Over time, he took her first to Pune, then to Bengaluru, and later kept her confined in a rented room in Husainabad market near Utraula. During this period, the woman gave birth to two daughters. After the birth of the children, the accused repeatedly forced the Hindu woman to convert to Islam and had her name changed on her Aadhaar card. When she resisted, he threatened her by stating that he worked for the “Chhangur Baba” gang (a major Islamic conversion gang) and warned that he would kill both her and her daughters if she disclosed the matter to anyone. On one occasion, the accused brought beef and attempted to force the Hindu woman to eat it. When she refused, he assaulted her. She subsequently managed to escape with both daughters and took shelter at a friend’s residence, but the accused traced her location and continued issuing threats. Following the woman’s complaint, police registered a case and began investigating the matter, including the accused’s stated connection with the Chhangur Baba gang. Police said Chhangur was not active when the woman first came into contact with the accused, and this aspect remained under investigation. Police subsequently recorded the woman’s statement before a magistrate. Inspector-in-charge Avadhesh Raj Singh stated that further action would be taken on the basis of her statement and that raids were being conducted to arrest the accused.

Why it is Hate Crime ?

The primary category selected for this case is: Crime against women in relationships and other sexual crimes. The subcategory selected for this case is: Man pretends to be Hindu. The tertiary category selected 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 subcategory selected for this case is: Forced conversion before marriage. The tertiary category selected for this case is: Forced to eat beef. 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, at some point during the relationship, the non-Hindu man starts to force the victim to convert to his 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 to his religion and give up her religious identity. In both 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 pressuring 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. This case qualified as a religiously motivated hate crime because the Hindu woman’s religious identity was repeatedly targeted through deception, coercion, blackmail and the attempted violation of practices connected with her faith. The conduct went far beyond abuse within a relationship. The pattern showed an effort to first obtain access to a Hindu woman through religious deception and then progressively weaken her ability to retain and practise her Hindu identity. A crucial religious marker was the deliberate use of a Hindu name to conceal the perpetrator’s Muslim identity. Such deception deprived the woman of the ability to make an informed choice about entering an interfaith relationship. The significance of this concealment became clearer when pressure for conversion emerged later. The false Hindu identity was therefore not a trivial name change; it served to build trust while concealing a religious difference that later became central to the coercion. The later pressure to abandon Hinduism reflected a direct attack on the victim’s religious autonomy. Religious conversion obtained through fear, dependency, intimidation or sustained pressure cannot be treated as a voluntary spiritual choice. Here, the woman’s continued adherence to Hinduism became an obstacle that the perpetrator sought to overcome through coercive means. This demonstrated hostility towards her right to remain Hindu and a disregard for the religious identity she had chosen to preserve. The attempt to force her to consume beef carried an especially clear religious marker. The cow holds profound sacred significance in Hindu tradition, and abstention from beef is a deeply rooted religious practice for a large section of Hindus. Compelling a Hindu to consume beef is therefore not merely an act involving food; when done against the victim’s will in a context of conversion pressure, it becomes a deliberate attempt to violate a religious boundary and humiliate the person through something forbidden or deeply offensive to her faith. Such conduct reflects animosity towards Hindu religious practices and an effort to break the victim’s attachment to them. The use of intimate material, threats and psychological pressure further demonstrated the predatory character of the conduct. Blackmail creates a condition in which the victim’s fear of humiliation or harm can be exploited to control her religious choices. When such leverage is used alongside conversion pressure, the objective is not persuasion through belief but submission through vulnerability. This makes the religious targeting particularly serious because the victim’s personal and sexual vulnerability becomes a weapon against her Hindu identity. Invoking the Chhangur Baba gang added another layer of coercion. The perpetrator used the name of a network associated with conversion-related allegations while threatening the woman, thereby creating the impression that resistance could expose her to consequences beyond an individual dispute. Police were examining whether any actual organisational link existed, so that connection cannot be treated as established. However, the use of the gang’s name itself was significant because it functioned as intimidation within an already coercive conversion context. Chhangur Baba, whose name has appeared in the present case, is Jalaluddin Shah alias Chhangur Baba, a Balrampur-based self-styled religious preacher who was arrested by the Uttar Pradesh Anti-Terrorism Squad in July 2025 in connection with an investigation into a large-scale illegal religious-conversion network. According to ATS investigators, the network targeted vulnerable non-Muslims, particularly economically weaker Hindus and women, through inducements, financial assistance, promises of marriage, intimidation and other forms of pressure to facilitate conversion to Islam. Investigators also stated that the network maintained different monetary incentives for conversions based on the caste and social background of targets, with higher amounts associated with the conversion of Brahmin, Kshatriya and Sikh women. The Enforcement Directorate subsequently opened a money-laundering investigation connected with the network and examined substantial suspected foreign funding and assets. Taken together, the religious deception, pressure to abandon Hinduism, attempted force-feeding of beef, blackmail and threats reflected more than ordinary interpersonal abuse. The repeated targeting of the woman’s Hindu identity and religious boundaries showed hostility towards her continued adherence to Hinduism and an effort to overcome that adherence through coercion rather than conviction. The cumulative conduct therefore reflected religious animosity and contempt for the victim’s Hindu faith, making the religious motive central to the offence rather than incidental to it. 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: The Hinduphobia Tracker records the incident date based on when the victim’s ordeal began, rather than when the matter was subsequently brought to public attention. In this case, the exact date on which the Hindu woman’s ordeal began was not specified. The material only indicated that the exploitation and coercion had been continuing for approximately one year. Therefore, 8th September 2025 has been recorded as the indicative incident date, derived by aligning the known year with the article publication date of 8th September 2026. This date has been recorded for documentation purposes only.