Hindu woman lured into relationship, pressured to do nikah by Muslim man; victim's family subjected to violence and casteist slurs
Lucknow, Uttar Pradesh, India 
24 October, 2025
Case Summary
In Lucknow, Uttar Pradesh, a 23-year-old Dalit Hindu woman was lured into a relationship by a Muslim man named Furqan. The accused, along with his mother, was pressuring the woman to convert to Islam and marry him. The victim and her family were also subjected to physical assault and caste-based abuse. The victim, a resident of Kashiram Colony, stated that her neighbour, Furqan, and his mother, Rizwana, had been harassing her for a long time and continuously tried to force her to adopt Islam and marry Furqan. The accused had manipulated her into a romantic relationship. When the woman told him that she was Hindu and would only marry within her faith with her family’s consent, Furqan became enraged and began threatening her. The woman further mentioned that the accused regularly went to her workplace, where he harassed, verbally abused, and physically assaulted her, using casteist slurs. He also threatened to disfigure her face if she refused to marry him. The victim added that Furqan often intimidated her to extract money. On the evening of 25th October 2025, at around 6:30 p.m., Furqan and his mother, Rizwana, went to the victim’s house and assaulted her, her father, and her brother, causing injuries. When her mother intervened, she too was attacked. The family stated that after the assault, the accused threatened them with death before fleeing the scene. The woman has audio recordings of the threats made by the accused. Following the incident, the matter was reported to the Chinhat Police Station. Inspector Dinesh Chandra Mishra of Chinhat Police Station confirmed that a case had been registered and that an investigation was underway.
Why it is Hate Crime ?
This case has been added to the tracker under the primary category- Crime against women in relationships and other sexual crimes. The subcategory selected is- Forced conversion before marriage. The tertiary category selected is- 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 subcategory 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. Another primary category selected is- Predatory Proselytisation. The 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. Another primary category selected is- Hate Speech against Hindus. The subcategory selected 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. Another primary category selected is- Attack not resulting in death. The subcategory selected is- Attacked for opposing radicals or trying to save victim. In several cases, Hindus are attacked for opposing religiously motivated crimes being committed against a fellow Hindu or simply for voicing an opinion opposing radical elements, who either have in the past or continue to persecute Hindus. In such cases, the initial attack against the victim, against which the Hindu was trying to defend the victim, would also need to be classified as a religiously motivated hate crime. Since the initial crime itself was religiously motivated and the subsequent crime of attempting to save the victim or speaking against the radical elements ends up inviting a violent attack, it would also be classified as a religiously motivated hate crime under this category. The other subcategory selected is- Communal Clash/Attack. Communal clash is a form of collective violence that involves clashes between groups belonging to different religious identities. For a communal clash between Hindus and non-Hindus to qualify as a religiously motivated hate crime, the trigger of the violence itself would have to be anti-Hindu in essence. For example, if there is a Hindu religious procession that comes under attack from a non-Hindu mob and after the initial attack, Hindus retaliate in self-defence, leading to a communal clash between the two religious communities. While at a later stage, both communities are involved in the clash/violence, the initial trigger of the violence was by the non-Hindu mob against the Hindus and therefore, it could safely be termed as an anti-Hindu violence. Further, the trigger would also have to be religiously motivated. In the cited example, the attack by the non-Hindu mob was against religious processions and therefore, can be concluded to be religiously motivated. In some cases, the trigger may be non-religious, however, it develops into religious violence against Hindus at a later stage. In such cases too, the foundational animosity towards Hindus becomes the motivating factor of the crime and therefore, it would be classified as a religiously motivated hate crime against Hindus under this category. In this case, a Hindu woman was subjected to religious coercion and intimidation by her Muslim boyfriend, Furqan, and his mother, Rizwana. The accused forced the woman to convert to Islam and marry Furqan through a Nikah ceremony. The victim was explicitly targeted for her Hindu identity and pressured to abandon her faith, revealing deep-rooted religious hostility. Initially, the accused deceived the woman into believing that their differing religions would not affect their relationship. However, as the relationship progressed, he and his mother began coercing her to embrace Islam and marry him. This transformation of a personal relationship into a means of forced religious conversion demonstrated deliberate religious animosity. Forced conversions are a violation of a victim’s religious autonomy and freedom and are motivated by deep-seated antagonism towards the victim and her Hindu identity. The intention behind this coercion went beyond marriage; it aimed to erase the woman’s Hindu identity and replace it with a Muslim one, turning the Nikah into an act of religious domination. The entire dynamic of control and force reflected a hate-driven attempt to strip the Hindu victim of her faith and impose a different religious identity upon her, making this a clear case of a religiously motivated crime rooted in anti-Hindu prejudice. When the victim refused to convert to Islam and marry the accused, the situation escalated into violence and intimidation. Furqan and his mother began issuing threats, harassing, and physically assaulting the victim. The accused, Furqan, verbally abused her and used threats of extreme violence, including death, to coerce her compliance. He even threatened to mutilate her face if she continued to resist conversion and marriage. This use of threats, coercion, and violence to enforce religious conversion exposed the depth of religious hatred and the deliberate attempt to break the victim’s spirit by exploiting fear. By using physical and psychological harm as tools of religious enforcement, the accused showed complete disregard for her autonomy, identity, and safety. The violence against the victim was born out of religious disdain and aimed at forcing subjugation through conversion, which firmly establishes the act as an anti-Hindu hate crime. The continuous harassment faced by the victim also underscored the religious motivation behind the crime. Furqan frequently appeared at her workplace and her home, subjecting her to relentless verbal and physical abuse to compel her conversion to Islam and eventually marry him. The ongoing nature of this intimidation made the religious intent behind the acts unmistakable. Harassment was systematically weaponised to destabilise her emotionally and psychologically, wearing her down until she yielded. Such sustained pressure to abandon one’s faith and embrace another religion amounts to a systematic campaign of coercion — a behaviour rooted in hatred and religious superiority. The use of harassment as a deliberate instrument of control and conversion against a Hindu woman illustrates deep-seated animosity towards her faith, establishing this as a crime driven by religious hostility. Furthermore, the victim was subjected to caste-based slurs during the harassment, which added another layer of humiliation and discrimination, making the anti-Hindu nature of the crime very evident. Some may argue that a caste-specific slur targets her micro-identity as a member of the Dalit section within the Hindu community rather than her Hindu identity itself. However, within the framework of Abrahamic religious hostility, such micro-identities of caste, region, or language become secondary. It is the broader religious identity that fuels the perpetrator’s animosity towards the Hindu victim. In this case, the use of casteist abuse was not intended merely to insult her caste background but to degrade her Hindu identity as a whole. The accused used these slurs to shame her for being Hindu and to coerce her into abandoning her faith and accepting conversion to Islam, making this a clear instance of a religiously motivated crime. Apart from issuing caste-based slurs, the victim and her family were also subjected to a communal attack. The accused, Furqan, and his mother, Rizwana, launched a violent assault on the Hindu family, injuring the Hindu woman, her father, and her brother. When her mother tried to intervene to protect her family and stop the Muslim attackers, she was also brutally beaten. The entire family was left injured and traumatised, and the accused threatened them with death before fleeing. This was a clear instance of communal violence directed against a Hindu family because of their religious identity and the Hindu woman’s firm refusal to convert to Islam and marry the accused. The incident reflected strongly religiously motivated animosity as the driving force behind the assault, making it an anti-Hindu hate crime. Since this case meets several parameters of a religiously motivated attack against the Hindu woman and her family due to their faith, this case is being added to the hate crime database of the Hinduphobia Tracker. Disclaimer: The Hinduphobia Tracker records the date of an incident based on when the crime or the victim’s ordeal began, rather than when it is reported by the media. However, in this case, media reports have not specified the exact date when the victim’s ordeal started. The reports only mention one confirmed date — 25th October 2025 — when Furqan and his mother launched a brutal attack on the victim and her family, causing injuries. Therefore, for documentation purposes, 25th October 2025 is being used as the indicative date of the incident.
Victim Details
Total Victim
4
Deceased
0
Gender
- Male 2
- Female 2
- Third Gender 0
- Unknown 0
Caste
- SC/ST 4
- OBC 0
- General 0
- Unknown 0
Age Group
- Minor 0
- Adult 3
- Senior Citizen 0
- Unknown 1
Case Status
Complaint registered
Perpetrators Details
Perpetrators
Muslim Extremists
Perpetrators Range
From 2 To 5
Perpetrators Gender
both
Sources 
