Hindu woman pressured for religious conversion by a Muslim man; forced to eat beef, recite kalma and delete images of Hindu deities from her phone
Begusarai, Bihar, India 
31 December, 2017
Case Summary
In Begusarai, Bihar, a Hindu woman was lured, harassed, physically assaulted and pressured for religious conversion by a Muslim man named Mohammad Shahbaz. According to the reports, the Hindu woman, named Aarti, met the Muslim man Shahbaz on Facebook in 2018. Gradually, their online acquaintance turned into a romantic relationship, with Shahbaz luring her to Bihar under the promise of marriage. He lured her by saying he was financially well off with a big house and a jewellery shop. Trusting him, Aarti travelled to Begusarai, where Shahbaz organised a marriage ceremony at Karpoori Sthan. After their marriage, Aarti changed her name to Aarushi Parveen but continued to remain a Hindu. However, Shahbaz began harassing, pressuring her to convert to Islam. He made her delete images of Hindu gods and goddesses from her phone and tried to make her consume beef, which she refused. Furthermore, he also pressured her to perform namaz, keep roza, read kalma and Quran. When she resisted these demands and conversion efforts, Shahbaz physically assaulted her and demanded dowry. Despite the victim giving him ₹1 lakh she had earned, she was subjected to abuse and coercion. Feeling unsafe and betrayed, the Hindu woman approached the Begusarai Superintendent of Police and lodged formal complaints at both the Nagar police station and the women’s police station. She expressed her desire to return to Madhya Pradesh and live with her family. In response, the police placed her in a women’s shelter for her protection and have established contact with her family to facilitate her safe return. However, according to the report by India Today, the victim did not file an FIR against Shahbaz and instead requested to be sent back to Indore. In the same report, the accused has refuted these charges and claimed that Aarti was previously married and has three children. He claimed that Aarti had relations with other men and had run away from home thrice. He further claimed, “Why would I ask someone who cannot even eat beef or read the Quran?"
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 first sub-category selected is: - Forced conversion after marriage, with the tertiary category being: - Forced to eat beef and Forced to read kalma. 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 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. The third sub-category selected here is: - Desecration of Hindu symbols in relationship. When Hindu women are in a relationship with non-Hindu men, there are cases where the woman faces insult and desecration of her faith (Hinduism) and its symbol because of the inherent disregard for polytheism of the non-Hindu partner. 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 desecrating the religious symbols of the Hindu partner out of spite for her faith. 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 selected is: - Brainwashed and/or groomed, with tertiary category being: - Victim says she was brainwashed/groomed. 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 was lured, physically assaulted, and pressured for religious conversion. The accused first deceived her into a relationship and marriage by pretending to be more financially stable than he was. Here, the Muslim accused did not conceal his religious identity. Instead, he presented a facade of acceptance, leading the Hindu woman to believe that her faith would not be a barrier to their relationship. Based on this understanding, she married the accused. Once married, the accused began coercing her to abandon her Hindu identity and adopt Islamic practices. She was repeatedly pressured to perform namaz, observe roza, and recite kalmas, acts that underline a coordinated effort to replace her Hindu identity with an Islamic one. One most severe aspects of the case is the forced consumption of beef—a direct assault on her religious beliefs. Here, this method was used not merely to shame or hurt the victim but to intentionally defile her religious beliefs so as to convert her. Forcing a Hindu to consume beef is not only a profound disrespect to their religious beliefs but also constitutes a religiously motivated hate crime. In Hinduism, cows are revered as sacred animals, symbolising life and sustenance, and the act of consuming beef is considered highly sacrilegious by many Hindus. Therefore, compelling a Hindu to eat beef goes beyond mere dietary imposition; it is an intentional violation of their religious principles and an assault on their cultural and spiritual identity. It qualifies as a deliberate act of defiling religious customs and constitutes a hate-driven attack on Hindu religious representation. The victim was also forced to delete pictures of Hindu deities from her phone, which further portrays his animosity that he can't even tolerate any form of Hindu presence in his vicinity. Such coercion is emblematic of religiously motivated aggression, where the accused uses acts that are deeply offensive and incompatible with the victim’s beliefs in order to subjugate, humiliate, and break her religious will. In many cases of forced conversion, the imposition of antithetical practices, such as beef consumption or erasure of Hindu symbols, is used as a tool to sever the victim’s attachment to their original faith. This deliberate imposition is not a cultural misunderstanding but religious dominance through abuse. Further, the victim was assaulted and threatened when she refused to accede to the demands of the accused. This shows the extent of animosity the accused harboured towards the victim's religion. This behaviour is on the lines of the pattern where the relationship, often consensual at the beginning, becomes a vehicle for religious domination after marriage. These actions stem from inherent hostility towards the victim's professed faith since Abrahamic faiths believe that any non-adherent to the faith is subject to being dehumanised till they convert. This worldview creates fertile ground for such predatory targeting. The religious identity of the Hindu woman becomes not just a difference but an obstacle, one that must be removed for the relationship to be 'complete.' Since such predatory actions stem from doctrinal animosity towards the Hindu faith and its adherents, this case is being documented as a religiously motivated hate crime. Disclaimer: The victim states that she met the accused in 2018 through Facebook, without mentioning an exact date or month. Thus, for documentation purposes, the incident has been recorded as 1 January 2018. This is an indicative date, used as a placeholder to represent the beginning of her suffering. While media coverage of the incident emerged on July 6, 2025, the Hinduphobia Tracker records the incident based on when the victim’s ordeal began, not when it was reported.
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
Arrested
Perpetrators Details
Perpetrators
Muslim Extremists
Perpetrators Range
One Person
Perpetrators Gender
male
Sources 
