Hindu transgender pressured to convert to Islam by former Muslim driver; subjected to extortion demands, blackmail, threats, and harassment

Case ID : 30aab5a | Location : Udaipur, Rajasthan, India | Date of Incident : Sun, 4 October, 2026

Case ID : 30aab5a

Udaipur, Rajasthan, India

4 October, 2026

Hindu transgender pressured to convert to Islam by former Muslim driver; subjected to extortion demands, blackmail, threats, and harassment

Predatory Proselytisation

Harassment, threats, coercion for conversion

Case Summary

In Udaipur, a Hindu transgender community head, Payal Bai, was pressured to convert to Islam by her former driver, Saddam alias Pathan. The pressure to change religion had continued for around three years and included an instruction to go to Ajmer and adopt Islam. After refusing to convert, Payal Bai faced a demand for ₹50 lakh, along with blackmail and threats. The harassment also extended to surveillance around her residences and intimidation of her disciples. Payal Bai said she is Hindu and would not change her religion. Aarti Kinnar, another head of the transgender community, described the matter as involving pressure for religious conversion and blackmail and said the community stood with Sanatan Dharma. The dispute began when Saddam alias Pathan worked as Payal Bai's driver. Saddam, a resident of Kanjipir, had approached her saying that he was poor and helpless, after which she employed him on daily wages. He worked for about four months. Payal Bai regularly paid his wages and maintained that all payments for the period he drove her vehicle had been cleared. A dispute later developed between them, after which his employment ended. Saddam then submitted a complaint against Payal Bai at the Superintendent of Police's office. The complaint accused her of withholding his salary and cheating him on the pretext of arranging a house. Following the complaint, police called Payal Bai to Surajpol Police Station for questioning. On 5 October 2026, she reached the station with members of the Kinnar community, after which the community demonstrated outside the police station and demanded action. Following the dispute, further reports of blackmail emerged against Saddam. Threats also included that she would not be allowed to live or stay in Udaipur. They created difficulties accessing her house in Kishanpol. After she built a house in Pratap Nagar, surveillance was also carried out there, while members of her community were troubled. Her disciples stopped coming to Udaipur city for around three years out of fear, leaving Payal Bai living in an insecure environment. The threats led Payal Bai to leave her house and move to a newly constructed house. The surveillance continued around the new residence. She took the matter to the police and administration, requesting protection and action, and raising concerns about her safety and that of the wider Kinnar community. Aarti Kinnar, who said she had come from Sanwariya Seth, described Payal Bai as having faced prolonged trouble. She said the transgender community was Hindu by birth, earned its livelihood by seeking money from Hindus and used community income for orphanages and cowsheds. She condemned blackmail and pressure to change religion and appealed to people in Udaipur to support Payal Bai. As the complaint concerned one individual, the community did not name anyone else. Aarti Kinnar called for police and administrative action and announced plans to approach the Superintendent of Police and the Collector's office. The transgender community submitted a complaint at Surajpol Police Station and a memorandum to the Superintendent of Police. They sought legal action and protection for Payal Bai and planned to approach the District Collector. Members of the transgender community travelled from Savriya Ji, Vallabhnagar, Mavli and surrounding areas to support Payal Bai and seek strict action. Umesh Nagda, founder of Shri Ram Sena, reached the police station after receiving information about the matter and extended his organisation's support to the transgender community. Shri Ram Sena, Bajrang Dal and members of the wider Hindu society of Udaipur also extended support to the transgender community, with senior administrative authorities to be approached if required. The transgender community sought registration of a First Information Report for extortion, criminal intimidation and pressure for religious conversion. Police continued investigating the complaints from both sides, and no arrest, final police finding or court determination had been established at that stage.

Why it is Hate Crime ?

The primary category selected in this case is: Predatory Proselytisation. Within this, the subcategory selected is: Harassment, threats, coercion for conversion. Harassment covers a wide range of behaviours of an offensive nature. It is commonly understood as behaviour that demeans, humiliates, and intimidates a person, including threats and coercion. Harassment and threats, in this case, find their root on discriminatory grounds which has the effect of nullifying a person’s rights or infringing upon his freedom to exercise his right specifically owing to the victim’s religious identity. Verbal and physical threats and psychological or physical harassment are often used against Hindu victims because they choose to practice their professed religion. Religious harassment also includes forced and involuntary conversions by harassment, threats or coercion. Coercion includes intimidatory tactics like force-feeding a Hindu victim beef to convert to another religion, forceful circumcision etc. In several cases documented, non-Hindu perpetrators or those who harbour specific animosity towards Hinduism, harass victims simply based on their religious identity. Such cases often also include harassment to ensure the Hindu victim abandons his/her professed religion and adopts the religion of the perpetrator. Such cases where Hindu victims are harassed to convert to the perpetrator’s religion are rooted in animosity towards the victim’s religious identity and are therefore documented as religiously motivated hate crimes. This case stands as a clear instance of a religiously motivated hate crime because a Hindu member of the transgender community was pressured, threatened and blackmailed to abandon her faith and convert to Islam, for which the victim was coerced to travel to Ajmer. Firstly, the pressure to abandon Hinduism and convert to Islam directly targeted the victim's existing Hindu faith. Payal Bai identified herself as a Hindu and made it clear that she would not change her religion. The pressure to leave that faith therefore placed her religious identity at the centre of the conflict. Rather than merely involving a personal or financial disagreement, the reported demand sought a change in her religious affiliation, from Hinduism to Islam. For a Hindu who had explicitly maintained her Hindu identity, such pressure constituted an attack on her freedom to remain within her own faith and practise it according to her convictions. Secondly, the instruction to go to Ajmer and adopt the Muslim religion gave the pressure a specific religious direction. The demand was not simply that Payal Bai alter her personal behaviour; it required her to abandon her Hindu religious identity and embrace Islam. This made the religious distinction an explicit part of the conduct. Payal Bai's refusal to convert and her reaffirmation that she would remain a Hindu Sanatani showed that her continued adherence to Hinduism had been directly involved in the dispute. Thirdly, the reported threats, blackmail and coercion had been connected to Payal Bai's refusal to convert. The pressure therefore went beyond an unsolicited attempt at religious persuasion and included conduct intended to make resistance more difficult. The ₹50 lakh extortion demand, threats, harassment and intimidation had occurred in the wider context in which Payal Bai had refused to abandon Hinduism. This made her refusal to convert a significant religious marker of the harassment. Collectively, the pressure to abandon Hinduism, the direction to go to Ajmer and adopt Islam, and the threats, blackmail and intimidation following the refusal to convert demonstrated a sustained pattern of religiously motivated hostility targeting Payal Bai's Hindu identity and her right to remain within her faith. The conduct had therefore extended beyond a personal dispute and had directly involved coercive attempts to alter her religious affiliation. Accordingly, this case has been documented in the Hinduphobia Tracker's Hate Crime Database as an instance of religiously motivated hostility directed against Hinduism and the religious identity of the Hindu community. Disclaimer: The Hinduphobia Tracker records incidents based on when an event occurred or when the victim's ordeal began. It is important to clarify that none of the media sources covering this case has specified the exact date when the incident occurred. Therefore, for documentation purposes, we recorded the date as when Payal Bai went to Surajpol Police Station and demanded action: 5 October 2026.