Hindu girl pressured to convert to Islam and undergo nikah; blackmailed, assaulted and stabbed by Muslim man and his family

Case ID : 30aafb3 | Location : Gwalior, Madhya Pradesh, India | Date of Incident : Sun, 22 October, 2023

Case ID : 30aafb3

Gwalior, Madhya Pradesh, India

22 October, 2023

Hindu girl pressured to convert to Islam and undergo nikah; blackmailed, assaulted and stabbed by Muslim man and his family

Crimes against women in relationships and other sexual crimes

Forced conversion before marriage

Forced to do Nikah

Blackmailed to convert

Assault or threat upon refusal to convert

Case Summary

In Gwalior, Madhya Pradesh, a Hindu girl was befriended, pressured to convert to Islam and undergo nikah by a Muslim man named Adnan Khan. Furthermore, she was blackmailed, assaulted and stabbed with a knife by the accused and his family. The Hindu girl, who was a resident of Karaira in Shivpuri district, was studying Nursing in Gwalior. According to her, she came into contact with Adnan through a friend around three years earlier, in 2023. During this time, Adnan befriended her by claiming that he respected all religions. She stated that Adnan later pressured her to convert to Islam and undergo nikah, assaulted her and threatened to circulate her obscene photographs and videos online. On the morning of 23 October 2026, Adnan arrived at the Hindu girl's room with his maternal uncle's son, Sarfaraz Khan, and his sister, Sofi Khan, while she was alone. The victim stated that Adnan had objected to her attending a Mata Rani visarjan procession, which led to the confrontation. An argument broke out, during which Adnan picked up a vegetable knife from the room and stabbed her in the neck, leaving her with a cut. She was taken to hospital for treatment, and her condition was reported to be stable. Following the incident, members of the Rashtriya Sanatan Sena, including its national president Bhagwati Prasad Shukla and organisation minister Pankaj Thakur, protested outside Madhoganj police station, demanding strict action against the perpetrators. The organisation also submitted a memorandum containing six demands. During the protest, the victim and organisation members stated that she had submitted a written complaint against Adnan around two months earlier but had withdrawn it after he threatened her with consequences and pressured her to settle the matter. Police registered a case against Adnan Khan, Sarfaraz Khan and Sofi Khan based on the student's complaint. Adnan and Sarfaraz were arrested, while further legal proceedings continued.

Why it is Hate Crime ?

This case has been added to the tracker under the primary category Crimes against women in relationships and other sexual crimes. Within this, the subcategory selected is - Forced conversion before marriage, with the tertiary category being - Forced to do nikah. 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 sub-category selected here 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 of being 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 her 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 case qualified as a hate crime because the victim's Hindu religious identity and her participation in Hindu religious practices formed an important part of the circumstances surrounding the attack. Adnan's objection to her attending a Mata Rani visarjan procession demonstrated hostility towards her exercise of Hindu religious practices. Her participation in the procession was a personal expression of faith, yet it became a source of conflict with Adnan. The confrontation therefore extended beyond a personal disagreement and involved an attempt to interfere with the victim's religious choices and freedom to practise her faith. The nature of the relationship through which the victim was targeted was significant. Although Adnan Khan did not conceal his religious identity, he initially claimed to respect all religions when he befriended the Hindu girl, which helped establish trust between them. However, he subsequently pressured her to convert to Islam and undergo nikah, demonstrating that her Hindu identity was not respected but instead treated as an obstacle that had to be removed. He exploited the trust developed through the relationship to pressure her into abandoning her faith, while blackmailing and assaulting her when she resisted his demands. The accused’s efforts to force the victim to convert to Islam demonstrate hostility towards her Hindu religious identity. By pressuring a Hindu girl to abandon her faith and embrace Islam, he treated her religious identity as something that had to be stripped away and replaced with another faith. Religious conversion must stem from an individual’s own conviction and free choice, not from manipulation, sexual exploitation, intimidation or threats. In this case, the accused's attempts to impose Islam upon the victim indicate a deliberate disregard for her Hindu identity and an effort to compel her to conform to a different religion. This coercive attempt to replace her existing faith with Islam makes the religiously hostile nature of the crime evident. The fact that the victim was also pressured to undergo nikah further illustrates how marriage was linked to the attempted religious conversion. Under traditional Islamic jurisprudence, a Muslim man’s marriage to a non-Muslim woman is subject to restrictions, and a woman who does not fall within the recognised categories of permissible non-Muslim spouses would be required to embrace Islam for the marriage to be recognised as valid under that framework. The pressure to convert in connection with nikah showcases that marriage was being used as a means of securing religious conversion and exerting control over the victim’s personal and religious autonomy. Rather than respecting the victim’s right to determine her own faith and future, the accused sought to make conversion part of the proposed marriage. This connection between the attempted conversion and nikah further reinforces the religiously coercive nature of the case. Furthermore, the accused also assaulted her and threatened to circulate her obscene photographs and videos online. These exploitations were not random acts of crime; rather, they functioned as religiously motivated tools aimed at humiliating and dominating a Hindu girl because of her faith. The target was not the victim as an individual, but her Hindu identity. Often in such cases, threats, blackmail and violence serve a dual purpose: physical subjugation and religious humiliation. The intention was to break the victim down, emotionally, physically, and spiritually, so that she could be converted. This was not random violence; it is systematic, targeted, and rooted in religious animosity. The stabbing occurred against the backdrop of religious coercion and hostility towards the victim's Hindu practices. Adnan objected to her attending a Mata Rani visarjan procession, directly linking the confrontation to her participation in a Hindu religious observance. The attack, following his pressure on her to convert to Islam, demonstrated that the conflict involved attempts to control her religious choices and restrict her freedom to practise Hinduism. These circumstances established a clear connection between the reported religious coercion, her Hindu identity and the violence inflicted upon her. Taken together, the conversion pressure, coercion, objection to Hindu religious observance and subsequent physical violence provided grounds to classify the incident as a hate crime motivated by religious hostility. The significance of the case lay not merely in the attack on a Hindu woman, but in the attempt to exert control over her religious identity and participation in Hindu practices. 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 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 date of the incident based on when the crime occurred. The victim was attacked on 23 October 2026. However, the media reports do not specify the exact date of the beginning of the victim’s ordeal, though it is mentioned that the victim came in contact with the accused in 2023. Considering these two pieces of information, we are using an indicative date of 23 October 2023 as the date of the incident. This date is used for documentation purposes only and represents the estimated beginning of her ordeal.