Hindu woman lured into relationship, pressured to convert, assaulted and blackmailed by Muslim man in Odisha

Case ID : 9958181 | Location : Kendujhar, Odisha, India | Date of Incident : Wed, 30 July, 2025

Case ID : 9958181

Kendujhar, Odisha, India

30 July, 2025

Hindu woman lured into relationship, pressured to convert, assaulted and blackmailed by Muslim man in Odisha

Crimes against women in relationships and other sexual crimes

Brainwashed and/or groomed

Rape and sexual assault/harassment

Forced conversion before marriage

Assault or threat upon refusal to convert

Blackmailed to convert

Case Summary

In Joda, Keonjhar district, Odisha, a 22-year-old Hindu woman was lured, threatened, and nearly abducted by a Muslim contractor named Farid from West Bengal. The Muslim accused pressured the woman to convert and marry him. Farid, who was working as a contractor in the Joda Municipality, established a relationship with the young Hindu woman under the pretext of marriage. After gaining her trust and establishing physical intimacy, he began pressuring her to convert to Islam as a precondition for marriage. When she refused, Farid turned abusive. He physically assaulted her, issued death threats, and threatened to leak her intimate videos on social media if she did not comply with his demands. The woman severed all contact with Farid and began working elsewhere, but Farid continued to stalk her. On the morning of July 31, while she was on her way to work, Farid—along with four accomplices from Murshidabad, West Bengal—intercepted her on the road. They once again demanded that she convert to Islam and marry Farid, while repeating their threat to release her private videos. When she stood her ground and refused, they attempted to forcibly abduct her and take her to Murshidabad. The woman raised an alarm and shouted for help. Local residents responded swiftly, rushing to the scene and successfully preventing the abduction. The five assailants fled as the crowd gathered. Later, the traumatised woman lodged a written complaint at the Joda police station. Joda Police acted promptly and arrested all five accused. Farid, along with his accomplices—Saidul, Jamal Sheikh, Shafikul Sheikh, and Dildar, all from Murshidabad—were taken into custody. The case triggered strong reactions, with Tanmay Dash, state convener of the Hindu Jagran Manch, stating that such cases are on the rise in Odisha. He urged the public to remain vigilant and called for strict government action to prevent similar incidents in the future.

Why it is Hate Crime ?

This case has been added to the tracker under the Primary category- Crime against women in relationships and other sexual crimes. Within this, the subcategory selected is- Brainwashed and/or groomed. Within it, the tertiary category selected is- 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 other 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. The other 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 other subcategory selected 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. In this case, a Hindu woman was lured into a relationship and sexually exploited by a Muslim man. Although the Muslim accused did not conceal his identity, the nature of the relationship suggested that the Hindu woman was initially led to believe that her faith would not be a barrier to their romantic involvement. Trusting the accused’s assurances, she entered into the relationship, during which the Muslim man repeatedly sexually exploited her under the pretence of marriage. While the victim is an adult, the psychological grooming involved, combined with the deliberate targeting of a Hindu girl for exploitation and intended conversion, indicates a clear religious motive. The Muslim perpetrator also pressured the girl to convert to Islam. This clearly demonstrated that the perpetrator's actions were aimed at making her completely abandon her own Hindu faith. This instance makes it clear that the entire incident was a premeditated effort to convert a Hindu woman to Islam, driven by deep-seated religious animosity towards her Hindu identity. Such acts are rooted in longstanding hostility and prejudice against the Hindu victim and her religious beliefs and identity, making it a religiously motivated hate crime. The victim was assaulted and threatened when she refused to convert to Islam. Additionally, Farid threatened to release intimate videos of her online to further pressure her into conversion and marriage. These threats were not random acts of violence—they were directly tied to her refusal to give up her Hindu faith. Such acts are not merely personal crimes; they are rooted in a desire to dominate and erase the religious identity of the victim, thereby qualifying them as religiously motivated hate crimes. Farid used intimate photos or videos of the woman to blackmail her into converting to Islam and marrying him. This shows that the Muslim perpetrator specifically targeted the Hindu victim for exploitation and religious conversion, and when his authority was challenged, he responded with coercion and blackmail to silence the Hindu woman and make her comply with his conversion demands. Such actions are clear demonstrations of a religiously motivated hate crime, as they are rooted in animosity towards the Hindu victim and her religious identity. In conclusion, this case involves a multi-layered attack on the woman’s autonomy, dignity, and religious identity. This is not just a case of personal violence or coercion, but one where the Hindu woman was specifically targeted because of her religious identity by a non-Hindu man seeking to erase and replace it. That religious targeting qualifies it squarely as a hate crime. Disclaimer: It is important to clarify that the report does not specify the exact date when the woman's ordeal began, but it mentions that the accused attempted to abduct her on 31st July, 2025. 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 later, the Hinduphobia Tracker records the incident based on when the victim’s ordeal began, not when it was reported.