Hindu man held hostage, pressured to convert to Islam with monetary inducement, his wife subjected to death threats in Sambhal, Uttar Pradesh

Case ID : 30aadcb | Location : Sambhal, Uttar Pradesh, India | Date of Incident : Sat, 14 October, 2023

Case ID : 30aadcb

Sambhal, Uttar Pradesh, India

14 October, 2023

Hindu man held hostage, pressured to convert to Islam with monetary inducement, his wife subjected to death threats in Sambhal, Uttar Pradesh

Predatory Proselytisation

Conversion/ attempts to convert by inducement

Harassment, threats, coercion for conversion

Case Summary

In the Hayatnagar police station area of Sambhal, Uttar Pradesh, a Hindu man was held hostage, pressured to convert to Islam and his wife was subjected to death threats. The Muslim accused offered a monetary inducement of ₹50 lakh in exchange for conversion to Islam. He also financially cheated them and extracted over ₹35 lakh from the victims. According to reports, the Hindu man's wife, Charanwati Saini, a resident of the Hayatnagar police station area, submitted a complaint to Additional Superintendent of Police (ASP) Sumit Sudhakar Ramteke, seeking an investigation into the matter and appropriate legal action. She stated that she possessed audio recordings related to the incident. She stated in the complaint that in 2024, her husband was held hostage and pressured to convert to Islam. He then offered Rs 50 lakh to the Hindu man in exchange for the conversion. The woman said the couple got acquainted with the accused around three years ago, when the latter bought six bighas of land from the Hindu man on an advance-payment arrangement. The accused later increased contact with the family by promising to secure a house for them under a housing scheme. From 2024 onwards, the family transferred a total of ₹4,92,000 to the accused's bank account. Transactions involving land in Bilari and Aincholi, along with a promise to arrange a plot in Moradabad, formed part of a financial fraud involving approximately ₹35 lakh. On 6 October 2026, the accused prepared a settlement agreement through deceptive means. When the wife of the Hindu man, Charanwati Saini, demanded the return of the money, she faced verbal abuse and threats to kill her. Sumit Sudhakar Ramteke confirmed receipt of the complaint and said that the matter was under investigation and further action would be taken based on the findings.

Why it is Hate Crime ?

The primary category selected in this case is: Predatory Proselytisation. The subcategory selected is: Conversion/attempts to convert by inducement. Predatory Proselytisation is not just limited to threat, harassment, force and violence, but it also has contours of stealth. In several cases, the Hindu victim is exploited to convert, with non-Hindus taking advantage of their poverty. In such cases, the Hindu victim who is suffering financially is offered monetary benefits, including lucrative offers for jobs, health treatment, education, etc, to induce the victim into changing his/her religion. In such cases, the religious identity of the victim and the aim to disenfranchise him from his faith form the heart of the crime. Also, taking advantage of and exploiting an individual’s economic vulnerabilities is widely acknowledged as exploitation, forms of which are often penalised by law. Such cases therefore are considered religiously motivated hate crimes since the victim’s religious identity forms the very heart of the crime itself. The other 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. The incident exhibited several elements that warranted its inclusion in the hate crime database because of the religiously motivated nature of the offence against a Hindu victim. The Muslim accused pressured the victim to abandon Hinduism and convert to Islam, offering monetary inducement in exchange. This indicated that the victim’s religious identity was directly targeted through coercion and financial inducement. Firstly, the pressure exerted on a Hindu man to abandon Hinduism and embrace Islam represented a direct challenge to his religious identity and freedom of faith. Hinduism formed an integral part of his personal beliefs, spiritual traditions, and religious affiliation. Pressure to renounce that identity and adopt another religion undermined his autonomy to determine his own religious path. Such coercion represented an infringement upon the individual's right to retain his Hindu identity without intimidation or pressure. The religious significance of this marker lay in the attempt to secure a departure from Hinduism in favour of Islam, rather than allowing the individual to make an independent and voluntary decision about his faith. Secondly, the offer of a monetary inducement in exchange for religious conversion demonstrated the use of financial incentives to influence a Hindu individual's religious affiliation. The offer of money linked a substantial material benefit to the proposed abandonment of Hinduism and adoption of Islam. This created a concerning intersection between financial persuasion and religious choice, particularly where the individual was subjected to pressure rather than approached through a genuinely voluntary process. The concern centred on the fact that material inducements were used to encourage a Hindu to relinquish his faith. Such conduct undermined the principle that religious affiliation should rest upon personal conviction rather than financial considerations or coercion. Collectively, the pressure to abandon Hinduism and the use of monetary inducement to encourage conversion to Islam demonstrated a pattern of conduct that threatened the victim’s religious autonomy and undermined his right to preserve his Hindu identity. These actions highlighted the significance of safeguarding Hindus against coercive attempts to influence their religious affiliation through pressure and financial incentives. 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: Media reported this incident on 15 October 2026. The exact date on which the accused first came into contact with the Hindu victim was not specified in the available sources. However, the report stated that the accused had taken six bighas of land belonging to the victim’s husband on an advance-payment arrangement approximately three years earlier. Since no exact date was mentioned, the indicative incident date was derived from the day and month of the media report and the year in which the parties first came into contact. Accordingly, 15 October 2023 has been selected for documentation purposes.