Hindu woman deceived into marriage and forced to convert by Muslim man posing as Hindu; subjected to physical assault and sexual exploitation

Case ID : 9958198 | Location : Nepal | Date of Incident : Sun, 3 August, 2025

Case ID : 9958198

Nepal

3 August, 2025

Hindu woman deceived into marriage and forced to convert by Muslim man posing as Hindu; subjected to physical assault and sexual exploitation

Crimes against women in relationships and other sexual crimes

Man pretends to be Hindu

Name Changed

Forced conversion after marriage

Case Summary

A Hindu woman named Laxmi Singh was lured into marriage, physically assaulted, and pressured for religious conversion by a Muslim man named Raja Ansari, posing as a Hindu. According to reports, the Hindu woman was originally from Himachal Pradesh, and her father had a business in Nepal. The victim got acquainted with the accused in Nepal, where he had opened a furniture shop near Laxmi’s father’s shop. The accused posed as a Hindu man named Guddu Singh to establish a relationship with the Hindu woman. Believing him to be a Hindu, Laxmi also agreed to marry him after he made the proposal. After the marriage, Raja brought her to his village, in Bahraich district of Uttar Pradesh, where she discovered that the accused's real name was Raja Ansari and that he was a Muslim. When she confronted him about the deception, Raja and his family physically assaulted her and forced her to convert to Islam. She was also subjected to sexual exploitation. The accused also threatened her with an acid attack and was harassing her for dowry. Fed up with the abuse, the victim lodged a complaint with the police. As of the date of writing this report, a case of conversion and dowry harassment had been registered, and the investigation was ongoing.

Why it is Hate Crime ?

This case has been added to the tracker under the primary category - Crimes against women in relationships and other sexual crimes. Within this, the sub-category selected is - Man pretends to be Hindu, with the tertiary category being - 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 second sub-category selected here is - Forced Conversion after marriage. 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. This case has been added to the tracker because a Hindu woman was lured into a relationship and marriage by a Muslim man, who pretended to be Hindu. 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. When the accused's real identity was revealed, he physically and sexually assaulted the Hindu woman and forcibly converted her to Islam. He also threatened her with an acid attack and subjected her to dowry harassment. In this case, physical violence and sexual abuse were used as tools to mentally subjugate the victim and pressure her into abandoning Hinduism and accepting Islam. Religious conversion under threat or duress is a direct attack on a person's religious freedom and identity, and in this case, was employed as a form of coercion against the Hindu victim. The demand for conversion was not incidental but a targeted and systematic attack on the victim and her faith. 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. 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 This deception reflects a larger pattern where Hindu women are specifically singled out using false identities, often with coercion or conversion in mind. Such targeted victimisation based on religion not only demonstrates a fundamental disregard for Hinduism but also exposes a deeper animosity toward Hindus and their beliefs. This is why this case has been included in the tracker, as it exemplifies a clear instance of religiously motivated hate and exploitation. Disclaimer: It is important to clarify that the report does not specify the exact date when the victim's ordeal began. Therefore, for documentation purposes, we have recorded the date based on when the incident was reported in the media.