Hindu girl lured into relationship by married Muslim man disguised as Hindu, pressured and assaulted to convert
Bareilly, Uttar Pradesh, India 
18 November, 2025
Case Summary
A Hindu girl in Bareilly, Uttar Pradesh, was drawn into a relationship by a Muslim man named Shoaib Abbasi, who hid his identity and introduced himself as a Hindu, Pawan. Their contact developed through regular conversations, and he soon expressed affection and spoke of marriage. He later called the Hindu woman to a hotel, established physical relations with her, and continued meeting her frequently. Over the next year, he kept postponing marriage, yet maintained the relationship through emotional pressure. She became pregnant, and he forced an abortion. When she resisted further intimacy, he compelled her again. She eventually went to his home to insist on marriage and discovered that his real name was Shoaib, that he was a Muslim, and that he was already married with children. His family told her that she would have to accept Islam if she wished to marry him. She said that he should instead adopt the Hindu faith. She reported that the family assaulted her and expelled her from the house. Shoaib then threatened to kill her and warned that he would ruin her reputation if she refused to accept Islam. The incident occurred in the Baradari area of Bareilly. The girl, an intermediate student, said she met him in 2024 at a party where he posed as Pawan, claimed he worked at a dairy, and concealed his background. She stated that the police declined to register her complaint despite repeated attempts, which led her to appeal to Chief Minister Yogi Adityanath for help. She said that Shoaib had upended her life and insisted that he should now adopt the Hindu faith and marry her. The sequence of events showed a sustained pattern of deception, coercion, and religious pressure directed at a Hindu girl through the calculated use of a fabricated identity.
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. 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 second subcategory under this 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 third subcategory under this 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 fourth subcategory under this is: Brainwashed and/or groomed. The tertiary category under this 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. This case has been added to the tracker because the sequence of events shows a clear pattern in which the Hindu woman was targeted through the deliberate use of a false Hindu identity. The man’s adoption of the name Pawan was not a casual choice but a purposeful tactic to enter a relationship that would not have begun had his real background been known. The identity shift shaped the entire interaction, as the trust she placed in him was built on this pretence. This establishes that the deception was not personal in isolation but structured around her religious identity. The inclusion is also justified because the pressure to convert emerged once emotional dependence and physical vulnerability had been created. The woman stated that the demand to accept Islam was made repeatedly and with explicit threats. This pressure came from both the man and his family, who insisted that marriage would only be possible if she abandoned her Hindu faith. The threat to her safety and reputation if she refused further demonstrates that the religious element was not incidental but central to the coercion. The case aligns with the category in which non-Hindu men use a fabricated Hindu identity to gain access to Hindu women. After the deception was exposed, the immediate shift to religious pressure confirms the motive. The transition from concealed identity to open insistence on conversion indicates that the act of hiding his name served a longer plan directed at altering her religious position. The violence she reported upon refusing to convert strengthens this link and places the case within the scope of hate crimes, where the religious identity of the victim is the point of attack. The grooming pattern is also evident. The relationship developed over months, during which she was drawn into repeated physical involvement, emotional dependence, and periods of isolation. This slow build of influence, followed by demands tied to religious submission, shows a structured approach rather than an impulsive act. The threats after her resistance reveal that her Hindu identity was viewed as something to be replaced or suppressed. For these reasons, the case fits the criteria of a hate crime. The conduct described by the victim shows that her Hindu identity was targeted through deception, coercion, and threats, and that the religious element shaped the actions taken against her at each stage. Disclaimer: It is important to clarify that none of the media sources covering this case have specified the exact date on which the ordeal of the victim started, though the year 2024 is mentioned. Therefore, to maintain consistency in documentation, we have recorded the date based on when the incident was reported in the media. Disclaimer: Although members of the perpetrator’s family were involved in the assault and threats described, we have recorded the perpetrator count as one. This is because the available reports do not provide clear information on individual identities, specific roles, or the extent of each person’s involvement.
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 
