Hindu woman deceived and coerced into conversion by Muslim man feigning respect for Hinduism
Lucknow, Uttar Pradesh, India 
30 June, 2025
Case Summary
In the Chinhat area of Lucknow, Uttar Pradesh, a Hindu woman was lured into a relationship, blackmailed and threatened with religious conversion and marriage by a Muslim youth named Rashid. According to the victim, the Muslim accused lured the Hindu girl into a relationship by manipulating and deceiving her. He initially gained her trust by reciting Hanuman Chalisa and Shiv Chalisa and speaking positively about Hinduism. He said that Hinduism and Islam are equal and that he believed in both religions to lure the Hindu girl. Over time, he began to pressure the Hindu girl to convert to Islam. When she protested, he tried to lure her to convert with money and a promise of a better life in Saudi Arabia or Bangladesh, citing his relatives in those countries. When the girl still did not convert, Rashid resorted to blackmail and threats. He began sending her obscene messages, obscenely edited her photographs, and threatened to circulate them online. He also threatened to kill her family if she revealed anything to them. Furthermore, the accused also reached her house in Lucknow on July 1, 2025, and left a bouquet at her house as a form of intimidation. He had stalked her many times, stopped her on the road and recorded videos of her. The girl, deeply disturbed by the threats and harassment, thought of committing suicide multiple times. Eventually, she told her paternal aunt about her ordeal, after which they filed a complaint with the police. The victim's family stated that they also tried to contact the accused's family and asked them to meet. However, Rashid, accompanied by three to four men in a black Scorpio, confronted the girl's family, issued death threats and warned of an acid attack if she refused to marry. According to the victim, Rashid’s family has connections with people living in Bangladesh and Saudi Arabia, and he also used to lure people with money for religious conversion. This suggests that he might be connected to an international conversion racket.
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. 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 second sub-category selected here is: - 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 third sub-category selected here 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 sub-category selected here is: - Brainwashed and/or groomed, with the tertiary category being: - Victim says she was brainwashed/groomed and 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. The second category selected here is- Predatory Proselytisation and within this, the sub-category selected is- Conversion/ attempts to convert by inducement. Predatory Proselytisation is not just limited to threat, harassment, force and violence, but it also has contours of stealth. In several cases, the Hindu victim is exploited to convert, with non-Hindus taking advantage of their poverty. In such cases, the Hindu victim who is suffering financially is offered monetary benefits, including lucrative offers for jobs, health treatment, education, etc, to induce the victim into changing his/her religion. In such cases, the religious identity of the victim and the aim to disenfranchise him from his faith form the heart of the crime. Also, taking advantage of and exploiting an individual’s economic vulnerabilities is widely acknowledged as exploitation, forms of which are often penalised by law. Such cases therefore are considered religiously motivated hate crimes since the victim’s religious identity forms the very heart of the crime itself. This case has been added to the tracker because a Hindu woman was lured, threatened, and blackmailed for religious conversion by a Muslim man. He trapped her by pretending to respect Hinduism, reciting Hanuman Chalisa and Shiv Chalisa, to deceive her into believing that he had respect for Hinduism and would not force her to convert in the future. But all this was just a façade, and soon he started pressuring her religious conversion. This itself is a clear manifestation of bias and malicious intent towards the victim's religion. He targeted her under false pretences by pretending to respect Hinduism while concealing his actual disdain towards the faith. His initial presentation as someone who accepted Hinduism served as a deliberate trap, designed to bypass her religious boundaries and exploit her trust. This indicates a premeditated intent to manipulate her based on her religious background. In cases like these, the tactic of adopting a false identity that respects Hinduism to manipulate and "ensnare" a Hindu individual is not just an act of personal betrayal but can also be interpreted as an expression of disdain or disregard for Hinduism and its customs that reflects a deeper animosity towards Hindus and their beliefs. He also attempted to brainwash her into conversion with money and the promise of a better life. Offering incentives to encourage conversion, particularly when directed at individuals who are vulnerable or in need, shows that these incentives are not acts of kindness or charity. Instead, they are calculated moves to exploit vulnerable Hindus because of their religion. By providing inducement to a Hindu girl to change their faith, the accused was effectively blackmailing her, who might have been desperate for assistance or a want of a better life. Such instances are seen in many cases where members of Abrahamic faiths often target socially and economically vulnerable Hindus to further their agenda of religious conversions. This form of coercion strips people of their agency and dignity and enforces forced conversions. These are not random or isolated incidents, but rather cases deeply rooted in religious animosity towards Hindu victims. When these manipulative and coercive tactics failed, the accused resorted to threats and blackmail. He obscenely morphed her pics and threatened to kill her just to induce conversion. He also issued direct threats to her life and to her family, clearly indicating that the religious conversion would be achieved even if he needed to resort to violence. Such 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 further proves the lengths to which he was willing to go just to induce conversion. 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: Media reports do not state when the victim met the accused or when the accused started pressuring the victim to convert. The only date mentioned is July 1, 2025, when the accused threw a bouquet and threatened her with an acid attack. Thus, to document this case, we have used July 1, 2025, as the date of the incident to represent the beginning of her suffering. While media coverage of the incident emerged on July 9, 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
Complaint filed
Perpetrators Details
Perpetrators
Muslim Extremists
Perpetrators Range
One Person
Perpetrators Gender
male
Sources 
