Hindu woman pressured into prostitution, urged to change her religion, and subjected to assault and financial exploitation in a marriage with Muslim man in Dindori, Madhya Pradesh
Dindori, Madhya Pradesh, India 
14 December, 2025
Case Summary
A Hindu woman reported being urged to accept Islam, pressured into prostitution, and subjected to assault and financial exploitation during her marriage with a Muslim man in Dindori district in Madhya Pradesh. This prompted her to approach the police authorities. She submitted a written complaint at the office of the Superintendent of Police after stating that her earlier visit to the local police station did not result in action. Members of the Antarrashtriya Hindu Parishad accompanied her during the submission of the complaint. In her statement to the police, the woman said her husband, Shrikant Panaria, a village kotwar from Fatehpur, exerted sustained pressure on her within the marriage. She stated that she was compelled into prostitution and repeatedly urged to abandon her religion. Upon disagreement, she was physically assaulted, even publicly. These details were formally recorded by the police as part of the complaint. The woman also reported economic exploitation, stating that her four-wheeler and jewellery were sold without her consent, leading to financial hardship. She informed the authorities that she had three children from her first marriage and that the loss of her assets affected her financial stability. According to the information provided to the police, this was her second marriage. Her first husband died in 2019, after which she was left to raise her children on her own. She later came into contact with Panaria over the phone, and the two married on 26 May 2023 before a marriage registration officer in Shahpura. She stated that the difficulties outlined in her complaint began after the marriage. The woman first approached the Mehdwani police station before escalating the matter to senior officers. The SHO confirmed that a case was registered on the basis of her complaint, with sections related to assault applied. Senior police officials assured that further action would be taken following the investigation, adding that all aspects raised in the complaint would be dealt with in accordance with the law.
Why it is Hate Crime ?
This case has been added to the tracker under the primary category of: Cimes against women and other sexual crimes; under which, the first secondary category selected is: Forced conversion after marriage. In such cases, a non-Hindu man marries a Hindu woman, and the force/pressure to convert to any Abrahamic faith, like Islam, begins after marriage. 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. The marriage could be under the Special Marriages Act, where neither parties are required to convert their religion for the marriage to be considered legitimate. While the victim in such cases enters matrimony assuming that religious identity is not a barrier, the non-Hindu man starts to pressure the woman to convert her religion after marriage. 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 situations, there is application of force by the perpetrator, including the denial of the woman’s religious rights. Some of the means by which the woman is forced/pressured to convert include force-feeding beef, being forced to read the Kalma, being forced to wear a hijab, forced to undergo Halala, etc. There are several instances where, after marriage, the woman voluntarily converts to Islam. Such cases are often argued to be a result of religious brainwashing, however, for the purpose of documenting religiously motivated hate crimes, in the absence of the victim complaining of forced conversion, such cases do not form a part of the database. The second secondary category selected is: Brainwashed and/or groomed; under which, the tertiary category selected is: 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 third secondary category selected 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. A critical examination of the facts recorded in this case shows that the harm experienced by the woman was not confined to interpersonal violence but was structured around coercion targeting her religious identity, making religion a central element rather than a peripheral detail. The woman’s complaint consistently linked sexual exploitation, assault and financial deprivation with repeated pressure to abandon her religion. These elements did not occur independently of one another; instead, they operated simultaneously, indicating a pattern of control that extended beyond physical domination to ideological and identity-based coercion. When abuse is accompanied by sustained pressure to renounce one’s faith, religion becomes a motivating factor in the harm inflicted. Importantly, the police registered a case invoking assault-related sections while separately examining the aspects concerning religious coercion. This procedural separation reflects institutional recognition that the conduct involved more than routine domestic violence. The presence of religious pressure alongside criminal assault distinguishes the case from purely marital disputes and places it within the framework of identity-based harm. The timing of the coercion is also significant. The pressure to change religion emerged after the marriage, within a relationship where the woman was already economically and socially vulnerable, particularly as a widow with dependent children. This context demonstrates how religious coercion was exercised through an imbalance of power, reinforced by physical and economic control, rather than through voluntary or informed choice. Crucially, hate crimes are not limited to public acts or communal violence. They include targeted harm where a protected characteristic—such as religion—is deliberately challenged, suppressed or sought to be erased through coercion. In this case, the woman’s Hindu identity was not incidental; it was repeatedly addressed, pressured and undermined through conduct that included assault and sexual exploitation. After examining the sequence of events, the nature of the harm, the role of religious pressure, and the police response, the case meets the substantive threshold of a religiously motivated hate crime. The abuse described was not only gendered and sexual in nature but was also directed at compelling the abandonment of religious identity, thereby combining crimes against women with religion-based coercion. This intersection is what places the case firmly within the category of religiously motivated hate crime rather than a private or isolated marital conflict. Date Disclaimer: The exact dates of the acts have not been specified in the available reports. The marriage was registered on 26 May 2023, and the survivor stated that the coercion and abuse began after the marriage. Since the offences occurred over a period of time within the marital relationship, the timeline reflects when the victim’s ordeal began rather than when the matter appeared in media coverage. The Hinduphobia Tracker records incidents based on when the victim’s ordeal began and not when the case was reported by the media or brought to public attention.
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 filed
Perpetrators Details
Perpetrators
Muslim Extremists
Perpetrators Range
One Person
Perpetrators Gender
male
Sources 
