Hindu woman deceived into conversion under false promise of marriage; sexually and financially exploited by Muslim man

Case ID : 8da1891 | Location : Pirojpur District, Bangladesh | Date of Incident : Mon, 10 November, 2025

Case ID : 8da1891

Pirojpur District, Bangladesh

10 November, 2025

Hindu woman deceived into conversion under false promise of marriage; sexually and financially exploited by Muslim man

Crimes against women in relationships and other sexual crimes

Forced conversion before marriage

Brainwashed and/or groomed

Rape and sexual assault/harassment

Case Summary

In Indurkani upzilla of Pirojpur district of Bangladesh, a Hindu woman named Sanchita Mondal was lured, sexually exploited and deceptively converted to Islam under false promise of marriage by a Muslim youth named Ali Howlader, son of Kabir Howlader of Char-Saudkhali village. According to reports, the accused, a resident of Char-Saudkhali village, came into contact with the victim through Facebook about two years ago and soon developed a romantic relationship with her. Within two months of their relationship, the accused emotionally manipulated Sanchita to convert to Islam, under the false promise of marriage. Based on this false promise of marriage, the accused converted her to Islam, extracted one lakh taka for marriage-related expenses and sexually exploited the victim. However, the accused later refused to marry the victim, claiming that his family was against it and left for India, cutting off all contact. Left distraught and without support, Sanchita travelled to Char-Saudkhali on 1 November 2025 and began a hunger strike in front of Ali’s residence, demanding that he fulfil his promise of marriage. This incident attracted a crowd and caused a stir in the locality. She told reporters that she worked in an NGO and that her conversion and financial assistance were made entirely on the basis of trust and love. She said that her life had lost meaning without the marriage and that she would either see it solemnised or end her life. She also revealed that she transferred a further twenty thousand taka through bKash to assist his return from India when he travelled abroad. The accused's mother, Reshma Begum, claimed she was unable to contact her son, as he was in India. She also claimed that the family would consider the matter if Sanchita’s account proved accurate. Police officials from Indurkani station visited the site after receiving information about the protest, although no written complaint had been filed. Officer-in-Charge (Investigation) Mohammad Mostafa Jafar confirmed that legal action would follow upon receipt of a formal complaint.

Why it is Hate Crime ?

This case has been added to the tracker under the primary category of - Crimes against women in relationships and other sexual crimes. Within it, the sub-category selected 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 other sub-category selected here if - 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. This case has been added to the tracker because a Hindu woman, Sanchita Mondal, was deliberately lured, deceptively converted to Islam, sexually exploited, and then abandoned by the Muslim accused, Ali Howlader. The sequence of events demonstrates that the accused had a clear and premeditated plan, in which every stage of the relationship was designed to achieve a single objective, the religious conversion of the Hindu victim. The accused established contact with the Hindu woman online and developed a romantic relationship that allowed him to gain her emotional trust. Within a short period, he began pressuring her to convert to Islam, using the false promise of marriage as leverage. In the cultural and religious context of Bangladesh, the accused would have known from the beginning that marriage without conversion was unlikely to be accepted by his family. Instead of being transparent, he used this barrier as a tool to manipulate her and convince her that conversion was necessary for their future together. Once the victim converted, the accused extracted money from her under the pretext of marriage related expenses and engaged in sexual relations with her, all while maintaining the illusion of commitment. After achieving conversion, financial gain, and sexual access, he refused to marry her and fled to India, cutting all contact. His immediate disappearance after securing what he wanted shows that the relationship was not genuine but constructed for the purpose of converting and exploiting a Hindu woman. The fact that the accused targeted a Hindu woman, pressured her into adopting his religion, and then abandoned her once she complied indicates that the motive was rooted not in personal affection but in religious coercion. The pattern seen in this case aligns with several documented instances where Hindu women have been lured, deceived, and converted under false assurances of marriage, revealing a consistent method in which religious identity becomes the central factor driving the exploitation. The victim herself stated that the conversion, financial support, and relationship were all based on trust and the promise of marriage. Once that trust was manipulated and the conversion secured, she was discarded. This demonstrates not a relationship that failed but a structured act of deception intended to erase her Hindu identity and replace it with another through coercive means. Because the exploitation, deceit, and abandonment were directly tied to the victim’s religious identity, and because the process was aimed at achieving forced religious conversion rather than mutual commitment, this incident meets the criteria for a religiously motivated hate crime. The case is therefore documented as a confirmed instance of anti-Hindu targeting through coercive conversion. Disclaimer: The Hinduphobia Tracker records incidents based on when the victim’s ordeal began or when the incident came to light. Since media sources have not specified when the exploitation and conversion began, the date has been recorded based on when the case was reported in the media, which is 11 November 2025.