Case Summary

In the Shahjahanabad police station area in Bhopal, Madhya Pradesh, a Hindu woman was thrown out of her home by her Muslim husband, Majid, and his sister, Tabassum, for refusing to convert to Islam. The Hinduphobia Tracker obtained a copy of the FIR, which identified the victim as Shashi Arya. According to media reports, Shashi had been married to Majid for nearly thirteen years. However, since 2023, Majid had been forcing her to convert to Islam. Her sister-in-law, Tabassum, also pressured her to convert. When Shashi refused, she was thrown out of her home and forced to return to her parents' house. Majid later arrived at her parents' residence, threatening her and demanding that she convert and live with him. He warned her that if she did not comply, he would kill her and take their daughter away. Unable to bear the harassment, Shashi filed a police complaint against him. However, the police did not take immediate action to arrest Majid. According to the police, Majid and his sister had been torturing Shashi since July 2024, forcing her to compromise this case. When she refused to comply, her mother and daughter were also threatened with death. The police confirmed that the case was pending in the court. Shashi informed the police that Majid had continuously pressured her to return to him and convert, threatening to kill her if she did not obey. He also demanded custody of their daughter, warning that if she did not give up the child willingly, he would take her by force. In December 2024, he attempted to abduct their daughter but fled when Shashi raised an alarm. A complaint was lodged against him at the time. On 16th March 2025, Majid once again approached the victim, threatening her with death if she did not convert. Terrified, she immediately called the police helpline. According to Amar Ujala, Shashi requested the court to grant her sole custody of her daughter, as Majid was demanding custody even before the court had reached a decision. Inspector UPS Chauhan stated that the dispute between the two had been ongoing for a long time. Previously, Shashi had also filed a case of dowry harassment against Majid. When the police attempted to arrest him, he fled.

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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. Under this, the first sub-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 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 to Islam 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 sub-category relevant here is: Leaves Hindu partner upon refusal to convert. When Hindu women are in a relationship with non-Hindu men, there are cases where the woman faces pressure/threats/violence to convert and change her religious identity by the non-Hindu man. However, when the Hindu woman refuses to convert, the non-Hindu man ends the relationship or divorces the woman, as the case might be. 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 pressuring the Hindu woman to change her religious identity and upon her refusal, ends the relationship. Cases where the Hindu woman converts to Islam and does not file a complaint about the force, or threat after she refuses to convert to Islam, are not considered a part of the hate tracker. The third sub-category relevant here is: Torture of family to force woman to convert. When Hindu women are in a relationship with non-Hindu men, there are cases where the woman is forced to convert her religion. Several methods are used for such forced conversion. The non-Hindu man is often documented to issue threats and even employ violence. One of the ways used by such perpetrators is threatening and/or torturing the family members of the Hindu woman to pressure her to convert. The perpetrators in such cases issue threats to harm or torture the family of the woman. In some cases, there is also violence directed towards the family to force the Hindu woman to convert. Such crimes aim to blackmail the victim into changing her religion by inducing fear of harm to her family. Such cases are driven by specific religious motivations and against the religious identity of the victim and are therefore qualified as hate crimes. The fourth sub-category 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. This case is a clear example of a religiously motivated hate crime where the victim, a Hindu woman, was targeted by her Muslim husband and his family for the explicit purpose of erasing her Hindu identity through forced conversion to Islam. The marriage, which lasted thirteen years, became the site of sustained coercion once Majid and his sister Tabassum began pressuring Shashi to abandon her faith. The persistence of this demand since 2023, coupled with repeated threats, expulsions from her home, and attempts to take her daughter away, demonstrates that the central motive was religious transformation, not simply marital discord. The case fits the subcategory of forced conversion after marriage, as Majid’s continued insistence that Shashi convert to Islam was the core condition for her remaining in the marriage. It also fits the subcategory of leaving the Hindu partner upon refusal to convert, as she was physically thrown out of her marital home once she resisted conversion. The subcategory of torture of family to force a woman to convert applies because Majid extended his threats to Shashi’s mother and daughter, weaponising fear for loved ones as a tool of coercion. Assault or threat upon refusal to convert is also present in his repeated death threats and his attempted abduction of their daughter. This is not an isolated domestic dispute but an act rooted in religious animosity. The threats, harassment, and forced separation were all conditioned upon the victim abandoning her Hindu faith. Such actions reflect a deeper hostility toward the Hindu identity itself, where the perpetrator views conversion as a non-negotiable outcome and refusal as grounds for violence and dispossession. The targeting of both the woman and her child underscores that the aim was not only to dominate the victim personally but also to ensure her progeny would not be raised in the Hindu faith. The religious motive transforms this case from a matter of personal conflict into an ideologically driven act of coercion and intimidation against a Hindu woman, exemplifying the pattern where Muslim perpetrators use marriage, threats, and violence as instruments for religious conversion. Recognising such incidents as hate crimes is essential, as they are part of a broader pattern of hostility toward Hindus and their continued right to practice their faith within intimate relationships. Disclaimer: Media reports indicate that the victim’s ordeal began two years prior to the filing of the FIR, though no exact date or month is provided. For the purpose of documentation, the Hinduphobia Tracker has selected 17 March 2023 as the indicative date, as it is precisely two years before the FIR date. While media coverage of the incident surfaced on 19 March 2025, the Hinduphobia Tracker records the incident based on when the victim’s ordeal began, not when it was reported.