Hindu man lured into marriage by Muslim woman pretending to be Hindu, threatened after getting caught

Case ID : 9958140 | Location : Indore, Madhya Pradesh, India | Date of Incident : Tue, 25 February, 2025

Case ID : 9958140

Indore, Madhya Pradesh, India

25 February, 2025

Hindu man lured into marriage by Muslim woman pretending to be Hindu, threatened after getting caught

Men attacked for being associated with non-Hindu women

Brainwashed and/or groomed

Case Summary

A Hindu man was deceived into marrying a Muslim woman who concealed her identity under the Hindu name Nikita and later absconded with cash and valuables. This incident took place in Indore, Madhya Pradesh, where Jaswant Kushwaha, a resident of Hingonia Khurd village, was searching for a bride. A man named Mukesh Maratha charged Rs 20,000 and arranged Jaswant’s wedding. When the first proposed match was cancelled, citing an accident, Mukesh introduced the family to another woman named Komal, who accepted Rs 2.5 lakh and brought a woman presented as ‘Nikita’, allegedly an unmarried Brahmin. On 26 February 2025, Jaswant married Nikita. However, in the days that followed, she casually used Islamic expressions like "Ya Allah" and "Allah ki kasam," raising suspicions within the family. Upon confrontation, she revealed her real name was Nazia and that she was a Muslim. Shortly after the revelation, Komal took Nazia away under false pretences. Nazia returned days later, claiming that Komal attempted to send her to another forced marriage, which she refused. Soon after, a man named Shahnawaz, also known as Shanu, contacted Jaswant and claimed to be Nazia’s husband, stating that they had a five-year-old child together. This disclosure stunned the family. Nazia then fled Jaswant’s home with all her valuables. Later, the victim’s family traced her to a rented house in Nayta Mundla, where she lived with her child and mother. When Jaswant tried to speak with her, Nazia’s mother issued threats and refused to cooperate. After repeated appeals for police intervention yielded no action, the family approached the Commissioner’s office alongside members of the Parashuram Sena, demanding justice.

Why it is Hate Crime ?

The primary category, in this case, is: Men attacked for being associated with Muslim woman. The subcategory under this is: Brainwashed and/or groomed. In our database, we have not added incidents where men 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 man for his 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 incident 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 himself says that he was brainwashed/groomed to convert his religion. However, if the victim is deceased (murdered or otherwise), the case would form a part of this database if his family/friends provided testimony that the victim was brainwashed/groomed to convert his religion. Since these crimes have a distinct religious angle where the victim is being targeted owing to his Hindu religious identity, these cases are considered hate crimes. In the current case, a Hindu man was deliberately targeted by a woman who concealed her Muslim identity, introduced herself as a Brahmin named Nikita, and entered into a relationship under false pretences. The religious motive of the crime is evident from the fact that the Muslim perpetrator hid her true identity to trap the Hindu victim. This itself is a clear manifestation of bias and malicious intent towards the victim's religion. By concealing her true identity, she exploited his trust, targeting him under false pretences. This indicates a premeditated intent to manipulate him based on his 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. When a person deliberately conceals their religious identity and pretends to be a Hindu to deceive and ensnare a Hindu, this act transcends mere deception and enters the realm of a religiously motivated hate crime. It violates the victim’s trust and disrespects her religious beliefs. This act of deception is an affront to the victim's religious and cultural identity and is an insidious form of religious intolerance that seeks to exploit and undermine the very fabric of the victim's community, which is why this case has been documented in the hate tracker. Jaswant’s family reported that the woman began using Islamic phrases at home soon after marriage. This sudden shift, combined with her disappearance and the looting of valuables, points to a clear agenda. The religious betrayal here is not symbolic; it had tangible, emotional, and financial consequences for the victim and his family. Across various regions, such incidents reveal a recurring method: identifying Hindu men from modest backgrounds, gaining their trust under false identities, and then manipulating them emotionally and socially with an underlying religious motive. In many of these cases, the victim is left isolated, humiliated, and irreparably harmed, both personally and spiritually. In this case, he was also threatened when he approached the woman and her mother to have a conversation. Jaswant was not simply fooled. He was targeted because he was Hindu, and his trust was weaponised against him. When religion is used as a tool for deception, and when the end goal is religious conversion or humiliation of the victim’s identity, it cannot be dismissed as an interpersonal conflict. It must be recognised as a communal crime rooted in religious hostility. Disclaimer: It is important to clarify that none of the media sources covering this case have specified the exact date when the victim's ordeal began. The earliest date mentioned is February 26, 2025, when the victim married the woman. Since Hinduphobia Tracker records the incident based on when the victim’s ordeal began and not when it was reported, we have considered the date of the incident as February 26, 2025, though the media reported the incident on July 26, 2025.