Dalit Hindu woman deceived, tortured and coerced into religious conversion by Muslim man posing as Hindu

Case ID : 45f5020 | Location : Sant Kabir Nagar, Uttar Pradesh, India | Date of Incident : Sun, 30 November, 2025

Case ID : 45f5020

Sant Kabir Nagar, Uttar Pradesh, India

30 November, 2025

Dalit Hindu woman deceived, tortured and coerced into religious conversion by Muslim man posing as Hindu

Crimes against women in relationships and other sexual crimes

Man pretends to be Hindu

Name Changed

Forced conversion before marriage

Predatory Proselytisation

Harassment, threats, coercion for conversion

Case Summary

In the Bakhira village, Sant Kabir Nagar, a Dalit Hindu woman was deceived, coerced into religious conversion, and subjected to sustained physical and psychological abuse by the Muslim man named Sarwar, who posed as a Hindu. According to reports, the victim came into contact with the accused, a resident of Chakia village, Khalilabad, after her husband died in a road accident. The accused concealed his identity and introduced himself as a Hindu man named Prince Sharma. The accused presented himself as a bachelor and gradually lured her into a relationship under the false promise of marriage. Subsequently, he took the victim to Mumbai, thereby isolating her, where it was revealed that he was already married and that he was a Muslim. He then called his wife, sister, parents, and other relatives to Mumbai, where the victim was coerced into converting to Islam. After forced conversion, she was subjected to continuous physical and mental torture by the accused and his family. The victim managed to escape and filed a complaint on 1 December 2025. The Bakhira police registered a case under provisions relating to illegal religious conversion and the SC-ST Act. A team led by Sub-Inspector Rajkumar Mishra arrested the accused, and he was produced before the court, which sent him to judicial custody.

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- Man pretends to be Hindu. The tertiary categories selected in this case are- Name Changed. 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 - Forced conversion before marriage. 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 second primary category selected here is - Predatory Proselytisation. Within it, the sub-category 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 has been added to the tracker because a Dalit Hindu woman was deceived and coerced into religious conversion by the Muslim accused, who pretended to be Hindu. He emotionally manipulated her after her husband's death and lured her into a relationship under the false promise of marriage. Firstly, the perpetrator 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, the accused lured her under the false promise of marriage and took her to Mumbai, where he along with his family forcibly converted her to Islam. Pressuring a Hindu individual to discard her religious faith and embrace another is a direct attack on her religious identity and dignity. It was not a matter of personal choice; it is coercion rooted in hostility towards the victim's Hindu 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. In Islam, marriage to a non-Muslim partner is prohibited, which was why she was pressured for religious conversion. This shows that the Muslim perpetrator specifically targeted the Hindu victim through deception, with the ultimate goal of religious conversion. Thirdly, the victim was first taken to Mumbai before being pressured to convert. The accused deliberately isolated her from her social circle and cultural roots, making her more vulnerable to coercion. After forcibly converting her, she was subjected to continuous physical and mental torture to ensure she did not revert to Hinduism. In many such cases, violence, harassment, and enforced isolation are used as tools to break the victim emotionally, physically, and spiritually so that the imposed conversion becomes permanent. These acts are not random; they are systematic, targeted, and driven by religious animosity, carried out with the clear intention of maintaining the victim within the converted faith. 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: 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 victim's ordeal began. Therefore, for documentation purposes, we have recorded the date based on when the FIR was filed, 1 December 2025. Disclaimer: It is important to note here that the accused's family, including his wife, parents and sister, also pressured the victim for conversion. Thus, the perpetrator count has been kept as 5, even though the police arrested only the primary accused, Sarwar.