Hindu woman raped by Muslim man, pressured to convert and marry

Case ID : 90a075d | Location : Moradabad, Uttar Pradesh, India | Date of Incident : Fri, 7 February, 2025

Case ID : 90a075d

Moradabad, Uttar Pradesh, India

7 February, 2025

Hindu woman raped by Muslim man, pressured to convert and marry

Crimes against women in relationships and other sexual crimes

Brainwashed and/or groomed

Rape and sexual assault/harassment

Blackmailed to convert

Forced conversion before marriage

Forced to do Nikah

Case Summary

A Hindu woman from the Katghar police station area was raped by a Muslim man, who later pressured her to convert to Islam and marry him. The woman, who worked at a firm, stated that the accused, a resident of Kazipura in Civil Lines, supplied goods to the same firm. Over time, he befriended her, obtained her phone number, and frequently made video calls. One day, he lured her to a hotel in the Kotwali area under a false pretext. There, he offered her a cold drink and halwa, after which she lost consciousness. When she regained awareness, she realized she had been raped. Upon confronting the accused, he silenced her by showing a video recording of the incident. He then used the video to blackmail her into meeting him at the hotel multiple times. He also pressured her to convert to Islam and do Nikah with him. The woman initially approached the Kotwali police, but no case was registered. Upon learning about the incident, Shiv Sena workers protested at the police station, demanding action. Shiv Sena district president Virendra Arora, along with other members, reached the police station, demanding action. Their protest escalated as they insisted on an immediate response.

Why it is Hate Crime ?

This case has been added to the primary category 'Crimes against women in relationship and other sexual crimes'. Multiple secondary categories have been selected based on the nature of the crime and the elements that point towards a religiously motivated hate crime. The first sub-category this case is being added to is 'Forced conversion before marriage' under the tertiary category '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. The relationship in such cases is mostly 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. In such cases, 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 sub-category this case is being added to 'blackmailed to convert'. When Hindu women are in a relationship with non-Hindu men, there are cases where the woman is blackmailed to convert her religion, owing to her religious identity of being a Hindu. Such relationships may be consensual with the religious identity of the non-Hindu man known to the victim, however, there could be cases where the relationship is not consensual and the non-Hindu man starts blackmailing a Hindu woman to convert her religion. In these cases, it is often seen that the Hindu woman is blackmailed with intimate photos and/or videos, threats of harm to her or her family, threats of violence etc. Such cases are driven by specific religious motivations and against the religious identity of the victim and are therefore qualified as hate crimes. The last sub-category this case is being added to is 'brainwashed and/or groomed' under the tertiary category 'rape or 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. In this case, the woman was befriended by the Muslim man and was invited to a hotel room under false pretences. There, she was drugged and raped. The perpetrator then used the illicit video of the sexual assault to blackmail the woman into converting to Islam and doing Nikah with him. There is a strong element of religious motivation to the crime. The forceful conversion of the Hindu woman was made to alienate her from her professed religion for the purpose of Nikah (Islamic marriage which requires conversion to Islam). The woman was selected based on her religious identity with animosity for her identity at the heart of the crime. The woman was further brainwashed to trust the perpetrator so he could lead her to a situation where he could rape her, film her and then blackmail her to convert to Islam. Since animosity and hostility towards the woman's religious identity is at the heart of the crime, this case is being added to the hate crime database.