Hindu woman deceived by Muslim man posing as Hindu; forcibly converted, compelled into nikah, raped and physically assaulted

Case ID : 9957f76 | Location : Indore, Madhya Pradesh, India | Date of Incident : Tue, 24 October, 2017

Case ID : 9957f76

Indore, Madhya Pradesh, India

24 October, 2017

Hindu woman deceived by Muslim man posing as Hindu; forcibly converted, compelled into nikah, raped and physically assaulted

Crimes against women in relationships and other sexual crimes

Man pretends to be Hindu

Name Changed

Forced conversion after marriage

Forced to do Nikah

Case Summary

In Kshipra police station limits in Sanwer tehsil, Madhya Pradesh, a Hindu woman was deceived into marriage, forcibly converted to Islam, and subjected to repeated abuse and sexual assault by her Muslim husband and father-in-law. The accused, Sameer Khan, concealed his Muslim identity and posed as a Hindu to lure the victim into marriage. The victim came into contact with Sameer through social media in 2017. Pretending to be a Hindu, Sameer expressed his desire to marry her. Trusting him, she left her family and went to Indore, where they registered a court marriage on 25 October 2017. It was only after the marriage that she discovered his real name and religious identity. When she objected, she was threatened into silence. Soon after, Sameer forcibly converted her to Islam, changed her name, and conducted a nikah against her will. He subjected her to regular physical abuse and coerced her into unnatural sexual acts, even during pregnancy. Her attempts to resist were met with further violence. The victim also reported that Sameer's father, Vakil Khan, of raped her. On 28 March 2025, when she visited the house to meet her children and found no one else present, Vakil Khan assaulted her sexually and threatened to kill her and her children if she spoke out. He continued to intimidate her with threatening calls on 12 and 13 July. Terrified, she finally confided in her family and filed a police complaint. In her statement, the victim appealed for protection for herself and her two sons, stating, "I want to live a life free from fear with my children. Please rescue me from this terror." The police have registered a case against Sameer Khan and Vakil Khan under Sections 63(d), 64, 115(2), and 351(3) of the Bharatiya Nyaya Sanhita, along with Sections 3 and 5 of the Madhya Pradesh Religious Freedom Act, 2021. At the time of writing this report, a search was underway to arrest the accused.

Why it is Hate Crime ?

This case has been added to the tracker under the category- Crime against Women in relationships and other sexual crimes. The subcategory selected is- Man pretends to be Hindu. The tertiary category selected 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 other sub-category selected is - Forced conversion after marriage. With this, the subcategory is- Forced to do Nikah. 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 victim in this case was a Hindu woman. The Muslim man targeted her specifically because of her religion, as shown by his decision to pretend to be Hindu in order to deceive her. The perpetrator deliberately concealed his religious identity to initiate and sustain a relationship with a Hindu woman. This itself is a clear manifestation of bias and malicious intent towards the victim's religion. By concealing his true identity, he exploited her trust, targeting her under false pretences. This indicates a premeditated intent to manipulate her based on her religious background. In cases like these, the tactic of adopting a false Hindu identity 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. After marrying her through fraud, Sameer Khan forced the woman to convert to Islam, renamed her, and compelled her to undergo a Nikah. The report confirms that the conversion was against her will, indicating a clear violation of her right to religious freedom. This coercive imposition of a new religious identity demonstrates religious targeting. The forced religious assimilation of a Hindu into another faith through marriage is a direct assault on her religious autonomy and identity, making it a religiously motivated hate crime. Disclaimer: It is important to clarify that the report does not specify the exact date when the woman's ordeal began. However, it states that the victim married the accused on 25 October 2017. Since this is the earliest date mentioned, we are considering this as when the victim's ordeal began and using this as the incident date. While media coverage of the incident emerged in July 2025, the Hinduphobia Tracker records the incident based on when the victim’s ordeal began, not when it was reported.