Hindu woman raped and pressured to convert by Muslim youth posing as Hindu; accused boasts of 'impregnating Hindu girls and leaving them'
Bhopal, Madhya Pradesh, India 
2 October, 2023
Case Summary
In Indore, Madhya Pradesh, a 26-year-old Hindu woman was deceived, raped and pressured for religious conversion and Nikah by a Muslim youth named Shad Siddiqui, who posed as a Hindu. According to reports, the victim was a resident of Jabalpur, came to Bhopal about 2 years ago, in 2023, to search for a job. During this time, she came into contact with the accused, who introduced himself as a Hindu man named Sachin, who befriended her under the pretence of helping her find a job. When her search for a job proved unsuccessful, she moved to Indore and began working for a private company, while living in a rented room in the Mahalaxmi area. However, she continued to remain in contact with the accused. On 3 January 2025, the accused came to Indore to meet the victim and went to her room. He offered her a mouth freshener, which rendered her semi-conscious, after which he forcibly raped her and took obscene photographs and videos of her. When the victim objected, he manipulated her by promising to marry her soon, A few days later, he introduced the victim to his family, at which point she discovered his real identity and that he was a Muslim. Subsequently, the accused threatened her to convert to Islam if she wanted the relationship to continue and marriage to proceed. He even took her on several trips, made her wear a burqa, while pressuring her to convert. To escape the situation, the victim changed her room, but it made no difference. On 1 October 2025, the accused came to Indore and called her to meet at the Infinity Hotel. When the victim arrived, he insisted on having sex with her. When she refused, he abused her, used casteist slurs, assaulted her, and threatened to make her photographs and videos public. He even boasted, "I am a member of the Machli Gang. I have a habit of impregnating Hindu girls and leaving them." Disturbed by his repeated harassment and coercion, the victim approached the Karni Sena office, a Hindu organisation, in Indore, where she narrated the entire ordeal to state president Shailendra Singh. With their assistance, she filed a formal complaint at the Vijaynagar police station. Following her statement, police registered a case against Shad Siddiqui, son of Khalid Siddiqui, under sections covering rape, coercion to convert to Islam, assault, and casteist abuse. As of the date of writing this report, the investigation was ongoing.
Why it is Hate Crime ?
The primary category in this case is: Crimes against women in relationships and other sexual crimes. The first subcategory under this is: Man pretends to be Hindu. The tertiary category under this is: Name changed and Pattern of targeting Hindu women. 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 here is - Brainwashed and/or groomed, with the tertiary category being - Rape and sexual assault/harassment. In our database, we have not added incidents where women have converted to another religion of their free will and no allegations of forced/involuntary conversion have been made. However, there are certain cases of conversion where the consent itself is a result of the brainwashing or grooming of a minor by the non-Hindu perpetrator trying to victimise a woman for her Hindu religious identity. The phenomenon of grooming points to non-Hindu perpetrators identifying their Hindu victims’ vulnerabilities and exploiting them over months and sometimes years, to extract the supposed ‘consent’ in order to convert their religion. In most cases of grooming, the victims are minors or the grooming started when the victim was a minor. In other cases of grooming, the non-Hindu perpetrator brainwashes and grooms a minor victim to extract their trust and then proceeds to rape them repeatedly with the intent of converting them to their faith. It is pertinent to understand here that when the victim is a minor, the ‘consent’ to convert or enter into a romantic relationship with an adult itself is redundant – addressed by POCSO. While every case of conversion of a minor and incidents of establishing a physical relationship with a minor by an adult is a crime, for the purpose of this database, a case would be considered a hate crime only if there is a distinct religious angle to the grooming. For example, in the UK, if a Hindu minor is targeted by Pakistani grooming gangs, it would be considered a hate crime because the victims are specifically targeted owing to their non-Muslim religious identity with the perpetrators being Muslim. In other cases, if a Hindu minor is brainwashed into entering a physical relationship with the non-Hindu adult perpetrator and the family alleges grooming/brainwashing of the minor to convert her religion, it would form a part of this database. If the victim is a Hindu adult, the case would form a part of this database only if the victim herself says that she was brainwashed/groomed to convert her religion. However, if the victim is deceased (murdered or otherwise), the case would form a part of this database if her family/friends provided testimony that the victim was brainwashed/groomed to convert her religion. Since these crimes have a distinct religious angle where the victim is being targeted owing to her Hindu religious identity, these cases are considered a hate crime. The other sub-category selected here is - Forced conversion before marriage, with the tertiary category being - Forced to wear hijab and 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 - 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 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 second primary category selected here is - Hate speech against Hindus. Within it, the sub-category selected here is - Anti-Hindu slurs, mocking faith. Anti-Hindu slurs and the deliberate mocking of the Hindu faith owing to religious animosity involve the usage of derogatory terms, stereotypes, or offensive references to religious practices, symbols, or figures. One of the common anti-Hindu slurs used against Hindus is “cow-worshipper” and “cow piss drinker”. The intention of using this term is to demean and mock Hindus as a group and their religious beliefs since Hindus consider the cow holy. Additionally, some symbols and the slurs attached to them have a historical context that exacerbates the insult, hate, stereotyping, dehumanisation and oppression against Hindus. Cow worship has been used for centuries to denigrate Hindus, insult their faith and oppress Hindus specifically as a religious group. There has been overwhelming documentation about how cow slaughter has been used to persecute Hindus with cow meat being thrown in temples and places of worship. There has also been overwhelming documentation where cow meat (beef) has been force-fed to Hindus to either forcefully convert them to Islam or denigrate their faith. Apart from cow worship, the Swastika – which holds deep religious significance for the Hindus – has also been misinterpreted and distorted to use as a slur against Hindus. Similarly, the worship of the Shivling has been used by supremacist ideologies and religions to denigrate Hindus owing to religious animosity. Such slurs and denigration stem out of inherent animosity and hate towards Hindus and their faith, therefore, it is categorised as hate speech targeted at Hindus specifically owing to their religious identity. This case has been added to the tracker because a Hindu woman was deceived, raped and pressured for religious conversion and Nikah by the Muslim accused. Firstly, the accused deliberately concealed his religious identity to initiate and sustain a relationship with a Hindu woman. This itself is a clear manifestation of bias and malicious intent towards the victim's religion. By concealing his true identity, he exploited her trust, targeting her under false pretences. This indicates a premeditated intent to manipulate her based on her religious background. In cases like these, the tactic of adopting a false Hindu identity to manipulate and "ensnare" a Hindu individual is not just an act of personal betrayal but can also be interpreted as an expression of disdain or disregard for Hinduism and its customs that reflects a deeper animosity towards Hindus and their beliefs. Secondly, in Islam, marriage to a non-Muslim partner is prohibited, which is why she was pressured for religious conversion once the accused's true identity was revealed. This shows that the Muslim perpetrator specifically targeted the Hindu victim for sexual exploitation and religious conversion. The accused even raped her earlier by drugging her, and also recorded obscene pictures of her. Often in such cases, sexual violence or blackmail serves a dual purpose: physical subjugation and religious humiliation. The intention is to break the victim down, emotionally, physically, and spiritually, so that she can be converted. This was not random violence; it was systematic, targeted, and rooted in religious animosity. Thirdly, the accused attempted to force the Hindu victim to renounce her religion and convert to Islam if she wanted the relationship to continue. Pressuring a Hindu individual to discard his religious faith and embrace another is a direct attack on his religious identity and dignity. It is not a matter of personal choice; it is coercion rooted in hostility towards the victim's Hindu identity. The purpose of this act was to destroy her religious identity. Such an attempt reflects religious animosity because the act is not simply about personal differences but about erasing the victim’s Hindu faith, making it a religiously motivated crime. Fourth, the accused made her wear a burqa. Forcing her to wear the burqa was not just a random act; it was his deliberate and malicious attempt at religious conversion. By making her wear the burqa, he was trying to impose Islamic practices on her and push her towards accepting an Islamic lifestyle. This imposition was done to normalise Islamic customs for her, making her conversion easier and smoother. This again glaringly demonstrates the religiously motivated nature of the crime. Fifth, the accused took her to the Infinity hotel, where he insisted on having sex with her. The accused used obscene videos as a tool to blackmail her into a sexual relationship while forcing her to convert to Islam. Taken together, these actions clearly indicate that the blackmail was intended to make the Hindu victim submit to the accused’s demands for sexual exploitation, rooted in religious animosity towards her Hindu identity. This instance demonstrates that the victim was specifically targeted, sexually exploited, and blackmailed with the underlying agenda of religious conversion and exploitation, making this a case of a religiously motivated crime. Sixth, when she refused, she was assaulted and hurled casteist abuses. It can be argued that a caste-specific slur is aimed at her micro identity of belonging to the Dalit section of the Hindu community and not her Hindu identity itself. However, as far as Abrahamic religions are concerned, the micro identities of caste, region, and language are secondary. It is the religious identity that drives the animosity of the perpetrator against the Hindu victim. Seventh, the accused openly stated that he was a member of the Machhli Gang and boasted about impregnating Hindu girls and abandoning them. This declaration demonstrates that his actions were not isolated incidents but part of a larger pattern of predatory behaviour targeting Hindu women. By invoking the Machhli Gang, he sought to intimidate the victim and assert control over her, using fear and threats as tools to coerce her into sexual submission and religious conversion. This further reinforces that the harassment, sexual exploitation, and coercion were systematic, targeted, and motivated by animosity towards the victim’s Hindu identity. Such actions stem from inherent hostility towards the victim's professed faith since Abrahamic faiths believe that any non-adherent to the faith is subject to being dehumanised till they convert. Such acts were not merely personal crimes; they were rooted in a desire to dominate and erase the religious identity of the victim. Since such predatory actions stem from doctrinal animosity towards the Hindu faith and its adherents, this case is being documented as a religiously motivated hate crime. Disclaimer: It is important to clarify that none of the media sources covering this case have specified the exact date when the victim's ordeal began, though it is mentioned that she came into contact with the accused in Indore in 2023. Thus, to document this case, we have used an indicative date—1 October 2023—as a placeholder to represent the beginning of her suffering. While media coverage of the incident emerged later, the Hinduphobia Tracker records the incident based on when the victim’s ordeal began, not when it was reported.
Victim Details
Total Victim
1
Deceased
0
Gender
- Male 0
- Female 1
- Third Gender 0
- Unknown 0
Caste
- SC/ST 0
- OBC 0
- General 0
- Unknown 1
Age Group
- Minor 0
- Adult 1
- Senior Citizen 0
- Unknown 0
Case Status
Complaint registered
Perpetrators Details
Perpetrators
Muslim Extremists
Perpetrators Range
One Person
Perpetrators Gender
male
Sources 
