Case Summary

In Kushinagar, a 20-year-old Hindu girl was lured into a deceptive relationship, abducted, and forcibly converted to Islam for Nikah (Islamic marriage) by a Muslim man named Naushad Ali. In this case, the Hinduphobia tracker obtained the FIR, which revealed further details and confirmed the religiously motivated nature of the crime. According to reports, Naushad was constantly trying to establish a relationship with the Hindu girl. The accused trapped Ragini in a deceptive relationship on the false promise of marriage and was planning to abduct her. When her family became aware of the situation, Naushad forcibly abducted her from her home on July 15, 2024. During that time, a complaint was registered by Ragini’s mother, Meena Devi, and she was recovered. On July 30, 2025, Naushad again abducted the victim to convert her to Islam and marry her. When Meena Devi confronted Naushad’s parents, Julekha and Sobrati Ansari, they admitted that Naushad was converting Ragini to Islam for Nikah. Furthermore, they also verbally abused Meena Devi and threatened to kill her and her family if they intervened. The accused's parents, using sticks and a spade, tried to physically assault Meena Devi, forcing her to flee for her life. The family had been living in fear due to these threats and violence. As of the date of writing this report, the police arrested Naushad Ali on Aug 7, 2025, and presented him in court, after which he was sent to jail.

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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. The second primary category selected here is - Attack not resulting in death. Within it, the sub-category selected is - Attacked for opposing radicals or trying to save victim. In several cases, Hindus are attacked for opposing religiously motivated crimes being committed against a fellow Hindu or simply for voicing an opinion opposing radical elements, who either have in the past or continue to persecute Hindus. In such cases, the initial attack against the victim, against which the Hindu was trying to defend the victim, would also need to be classified as a religiously motivated hate crime. Since the initial crime itself was religiously motivated and the subsequent crime of attempting to save the victim or speaking against the radical elements ends up inviting a violent attack, it would also be classified as a religiously motivated hate crime under this category. The third primary category selected here is - Hate speech against Hindu. Within it, the sub-category selected is - Violent threats. Violent threats, explicit, implicit or implied, is the most dangerous form of hate speech since it goes beyond discriminatory and prejudicial language to express the intent of causing harm to an individual or a group of people based on their religious identity and faith. There could be several different kinds of threats that are issued to Hindus based on religious animosity. An explicit threat would mean the direct threat of violence towards an individual Hindu, a group of Hindus or Hindus at large. Physical violence, death threats, threats of destruction of property belonging to Hindus and threats of genocide would mean explicit threats against Hindus for their religious identity. Implicit threats may not be a direct threat but implied through the use of symbols of actions – for example – in the Nupur Sharma case, other than explicit threats, there were also implicit threats when Islamists took to the streets to burn and beat her effigies. It implies that they want to do the same to Nupur Sharma – thereby is considered an implicit threat. Violent threats can be delivered in person, through letters, phone calls, graffiti, or increasingly through social media and other online platforms. It would be important to understand that a threat – explicit or implicit, online or offline – to an individual who happens to be a Hindu does not qualify as a religiously motivated threat. Such a threat, while vile and dangerous, could be owing to non-religious reasons and/or personal animosity. To qualify as a religiously motivated threat, it would need to exhibit an indication that the individual is being targeted for religious reasons and/or owing to his/her religious identity as a Hindu. This case has been added to the tracker because the Muslim perpetrator lured a Hindu girl into a deceptive relationship and then abducted her with the intention of converting her to Islam and performing Nikah with her. In Islam, conversion of the non-Muslim partner is seen as a pre-requisite for marriage, and thus, in this case, conversion happened not out of free will but was forced upon the Hindu girl. This exploitation highlights a clear religious motivation, as the accused's actions centred on manipulating the victim's religious identity and imposing his faith as a means of control. By utilising religious conversion as a tool of coercion, his actions demonstrate not only exploitation but also deep-seated disrespect for the victims' faith and religious autonomy. Furthermore, the accused was determined to convert the victim, which is why, despite the police complaint, he abducted her again. Here, abduction was used as a manipulative tactic to isolate her from her cultural roots and religious identity, making her conversion easier. By isolating her, he was mentally subjugating her in order to force compliance. 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 case is on the lines of a pattern wherein Hindu women are systematically drawn into exploitative relationships by non-Hindu men. Such acts, when executed under religious pretext and with deliberate rejection of the Hindu identity of the victim, constitute a grave form of religious animosity. In such cases, the aim is not simply to control the individual, but to erase her religious character through coercion, humiliation, and systematic isolation. Thus, this case was not just about an interpersonal offence but a religiously motivated hate crime. Additionally, when the victim’s mother confronted the accused’s parents, she was abused, given death threats, and physically attacked. The accused’s family not only confirmed the religious motivation behind the acts but also sought to violently suppress any opposition. This shows how resistance to such acts is often met with violent suppression. This serves as a statement to fellow Hindus that if they show resistance, they will be met with violence. Such retaliatory violence reinforces the climate of fear and impunity around these acts and is part of a larger pattern of silencing or punishing those who oppose religiously motivated abuse, making this a religiously motivated hate crime. Disclaimer: Since the victim was first abducted on July 15, 2024, the date of the incident is selected as July 15, 2024. While media coverage of the incident emerged on August 7, 2025, the Hinduphobia Tracker records the incident based on when the victim’s ordeal began, not when it was reported.