Hindu woman lured into marriage, pressured to convert and assaulted for refusing by Christian man posing as Hindu
Raipur, Chhattisgarh, India 
26 September, 2023
Case Summary
In Raipur, Chhattisgarh, a Hindu woman was lured into marriage by a Christian man who had pretended to be a Hindu. The victim was married to him according to Hindu customs, but after the marriage, she was pressured to convert to Christianity. When she refused, she was physically assaulted and threatened with death. According to media reports, the victim was identified as Tannu Patel, aged 26, who married the Christian man Vineet Suta in 2023 according to Hindu customs. She subsequently began living with him and his parents in Satnami Para, under the jurisdiction of Telibandha police station. According to her complaint, her husband Vineet, mother-in-law Nivedita Suta, and father-in-law Ajay Suta repeatedly pressured her to abandon Hinduism and adopt Christianity after the marriage. She stated that she was physically assaulted whenever she refused to comply with their demands. On 27 September 2026, at around 8 PM, while the family was having dinner, the demand for Tannu to convert to Christianity was raised again. When she refused, her husband, mother-in-law, and father-in-law kicked and punched her. They also threatened to kill her if she continued to resist the pressure to convert. Tannu further stated that her father-in-law, Ajay Suta, told her that his son had married her specifically to convert her to Christianity. She said that Vineet and his mother laughed while Ajay made the statement, reinforcing the conversion-related nature of the marriage and the pressure she had described in her complaint. She further stated that she was threatened with death for refusing to convert. Following the assault, Tannu informed her brother Lalit Patel, elder sister Sangeeta Patel, and acquaintances Bhushan Sahu and Yogesh Saini about the incident. She subsequently approached Telibandha police station along with members of the Bajrang Dal and sought action against her husband and in-laws. Telibandha police station in-charge Ajay Jha confirmed that a First Information Report was registered on the basis of Tannu's complaint and that the three accused were taken into custody. Further police action in the case was underway.
Why it is Hate Crime ?
This case is being documented in the tracker under the first primary category: Crimes against women in relationships and other sexual crimes. The sub-category selected is: Man pretends to be Hindu. The tertiary category selected is: Name Changed, Marries as per Hindu rituals. 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 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. The other sub-category selected 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 second primary category selected in this case is: Attack not resulting in death. The sub-category selected is: Attack for refusal to convert. When there is pressure, threat or coercion employed upon the Hindu victim to convert to a different religion, in several cases, the victim refuses to succumb to the pressure/threats. Once the victim refuses, the perpetrator proceeds to attack/assault the victim owing to his/her refusal to convert. In such cases, the pressure/threat/intimidation/coercion/violence itself is driven by animosity towards the victim’s Hindu faith. The violence then is another hate crime driven by the victim’s refusal to abandon his professed faith, Hinduism, and convert to the religion of a non-Hindu perpetrator. Since the victim’s faith is at the heart of the pressure to convert and the ensuing violence towards the victim, such cases are considered religiously motivated hate crimes. This case is a clear example of a religiously driven hate crime because a Hindu woman was deceived into a marriage according to Hindu customs by a Christian man pretending to be Hindu. After the marriage, she was pressured to convert to Christianity. When she refused, she was subjected to physical violence and death threats by the Christian man and his family. The case details overall showcase that the victim’s religious identity was the reason she was targeted, making it a religiously driven hate crime. Firstly, the perpetrator's act of deception by posing as a Hindu itself demonstrates a clear bias and malicious intent towards the victim’s religion. By hiding his true identity, the Christian man manipulated the Hindu woman's trust and targeted her under false pretences, indicating a premeditated effort to exploit the woman based on her religious background. Additionally, the marriage, as per Hindu customs, legitimised the relationship in the eyes of the woman and the wider Hindu community. This constituted a direct violation of her right to informed consent regarding whom she chooses to marry, as well as an infringement upon her religious beliefs. Thus, the perpetrator’s deliberate decision to hide his religious identity strongly underscores the religious motive behind this crime. In such instances, identity concealment is not just a deceptive tactic for personal reasons but a calculated strategy rooted in religious profiling and targeting. The accused was aware that the victim, being Hindu, would likely refuse his advances if she knew his real identity, and he circumvented this by lying, which directly points to a religiously driven intent. Such targeted victimisation based on religion not only demonstrates a fundamental disregard for Hinduism but also exposes a deeper animosity toward Hindus and their beliefs. After the marriage, the Hindu woman was pressured to convert to Christianity, demonstrating that the marriage was used as a means to undermine her religious autonomy. A religious conversion can only be considered voluntary when it is made out of a person’s own free will; however, in this case, the victim was subjected to pressure and coercion to abandon Hinduism. The attempt to compel her to change her religion, rather than respecting her decision to retain her faith, reflected the perpetrators’ religious animosity and their disregard for her right to practise Hinduism freely. This conduct revealed a deep-seated disdain for the victim’s Hindu identity and her Hindu faith, making the case a clear example of a religiously driven hate crime. When the victim refused to convert, she was physically assaulted and threatened with death by her husband and in-laws. The use of violence and death threats in response to her refusal to change her religion demonstrates deep-seated religious hostility. It shows that the perpetrators were willing to use coercion and violence to strip the victim of her Hindu identity rather than respect her right to retain her faith. The escalation from conversion pressure to physical violence and threats of death further demonstrates an attempt to impose Christianity through force, reflecting an extreme form of religious coercion and hostility towards the victim’s Hindu identity. The religious intent behind the marriage was further underscored when the perpetrator’s father told the victim that his son had married her specifically with the intention of converting her to Christianity. This indicated that the attempt to convert her was not a development that arose after the marriage but formed part of the purpose behind the relationship from the outset. The involvement of the Christian husband and his in-laws in pressuring and assaulting the victim further showed that the conduct was not limited to the actions of the husband alone. Instead, his family participated in the effort to compel the victim to abandon her Hindu faith, further highlighting the religious hostility underlying the case. Given that this case meets the parameters of a hate crime, it is being added to the hate crime database of the Hinduphobia Tracker. Disclaimer: Hinduphobia Tracker records incident dates based on when the victim’s ordeal began rather than when the incident was reported by the media. In this case, the earliest date mentioned in media reports is 27 September 2026, while the victim’s ordeal began in 2023 when she married the perpetrator according to Hindu rituals. Therefore, based on both pieces of information, an indicative incident date of 27 September 2023 is being selected. This date is being selected for documentation purposes only.
Victim Details
Total Victim
1
Deceased
0
Gender
- Male 0
- Female 1
- Third Gender 0
- Unknown 0
Caste
- SC/ST 0
- OBC 0
- General 1
- Unknown 0
Age Group
- Minor 0
- Adult 1
- Senior Citizen 0
- Unknown 0
Case Status
Complaint registered
Perpetrators Details
Perpetrators
Christian Extremists
Perpetrators Range
From 2 To 5
Perpetrators Gender
both
Sources 
