Hindu siblings tortured, forced to convert by brother who embraced Islam under influence of Muslim woman living with them

Case ID : 9958354 | Location : Prayagraj (Allahabad), Uttar Pradesh, India | Date of Incident : Mon, 15 May, 2023

Case ID : 9958354

Prayagraj (Allahabad), Uttar Pradesh, India

15 May, 2023

Hindu siblings tortured, forced to convert by brother who embraced Islam under influence of Muslim woman living with them

Predatory Proselytisation

Harassment, threats, coercion for conversion

Proselytisation by grooming, brainwashing, manipulation or subtle indoctrination

Case Summary

Two Hindu sisters were tortured and forced to convert to Islam by their brother, who had embraced Islam under the influence of a Muslim woman living with them. One of the victims approached the police seeking protection. She accused her brother of pressuring her and their younger sister to adopt Islamic rituals. According to reports, on 29 July 2025, 21-year-old Ritika Kushwaha fled her home in Rajapur Uchwagarhi, Cantt police station area, Prayagraj, and went to the police station to file a complaint against her brother Rahul Kushwaha. She said her brother had been torturing her and forcing her to convert to Islam. Recalling what transpired, she stated that her brother's behaviour and their house's atmosphere changed after he brought his friend’s wife, Rubia, home in May 2023. He began wearing a cap for namaz, visiting dargahs, and insisting the family follow Muslim customs. Their father, Ramesh Kushwaha, had died earlier of illness, and their mother, Rajkumari, was living with mental illness. Rahul, who had carried the family’s responsibilities, now ran the house on his new terms. Ritika said the home, kitchen, and family shrine were reordered to match Islamic practices, and she was pressed to wear a Tabeez and perform Islamic rituals. She stated that when her younger sister, Radhika, objected, Rahul took her to a Maulana claiming she was unwell. After a year of suffering, Radhika died on 29 May 2024. Ritika said that the same pressures and beatings then shifted to her, with visitors described as clerics arriving at the house and Rahul forcing her to sit and speak with them. She said Rahul planned to send her to a Maulana in Kolkata to complete a conversion. Their elder sister, Kanchan Kushwaha, married and living in Jaipur, said Rahul turned their mother “mad” after their father’s death and that he had long kept criminal company. She recalled a 2021 bombing case in Daraganj for which Rahul was jailed, and said he told the family that a friend, Ejaz, helped him in jail and that he would now do anything for him. According to Kanchan, Ejaz stayed in prison, but his wife, Rubia, moved into the Kushwaha home and lived with Rahul as husband and wife. Kanchan said Rubia dressed as a Hindu while Rahul performed Muslim rituals at her urging. Their brother Kunal said Rahul had converted and was trying to convert the entire household. He said that Rahul had earlier tried to force him into conversion and even took him to a dargah. Kunal fled to Delhi for a year after witnessing these changes, but returned when Radhika died. Now, according to Kunal, Rahul is determined to send Ritika away to a maulvi in Kolkata after forcing her conversion. He said Rahul kept a pistol at home and ran with a gang of rogue boys, and that protests brought beatings for the family. Six months ago, their other brother, Rajat, fired a pistol at Rahul while protesting the assault on Ritika and was jailed thereafter. Local residents described Rahul as a criminal type and said his elderly mother still lived in the four-room house on a 90-square-yard plot that the father had built. Neighbours noted that a recent complaint had been filed but declined to be quoted on camera. Photographs showed Rahul at a dargah offering a chadar and at a mosque with a Maulana and Rubia’s two children, whom he now treated as family. Police records confirmed Rahul’s background. The Cantt police station inspector-in-charge said Rahul is a history-sheeter from Daraganj with cases of theft, bombing, theft-related offences, and under the Gangster Act. On 29 July 2025, Ritika filed a written application alleging torture and obscenity. The inspector said the inquiry established harassment and that Rahul was being traced. DCP City Abhishek Bharti stated that he had sought a detailed report from the police station and that strict legal action would follow.

Why it is Hate Crime ?

The primary category in this case is: Predatory proselytisation. The first subcategory under this is: Harassment, threats, coercion for conversion. Harassment covers a wide range of behaviours of an offensive nature. It is commonly understood as behaviour that demeans, humiliates, and intimidates a person, including threats and coercion. Harassment and threats, in this case, find their root on discriminatory grounds which has the effect of nullifying a person’s rights or infringing upon his freedom to exercise his right specifically owing to the victim’s religious identity. Verbal and physical threats and psychological or physical harassment are often used against Hindu victims because they choose to practice their professed religion. Religious harassment also includes forced and involuntary conversions by harassment, threats or coercion. Coercion includes intimidatory tactics like force-feeding a Hindu victim beef to convert to another religion, forceful circumcision etc. In several cases documented, non-Hindu perpetrators or those who harbour specific animosity towards Hinduism, harass victims simply based on their religious identity. Such cases often also include harassment to ensure the Hindu victim abandons his/her professed religion and adopts the religion of the perpetrator. Such cases where Hindu victims are harassed to convert to the perpetrator’s religion are rooted in animosity towards the victim’s religious identity and are therefore documented as religiously motivated hate crimes. The second subcategory under this is: Proselytisation by grooming, brainwashing, manipulation or subtle indoctrination. Religious brainwashing essentially means the often subtle and forcible indoctrination to induce someone to give up their religious beliefs to accept contrasting regimented ideas. Religious grooming or brainwashing also involves propaganda and manipulation. It involves the systematic effort, driven by religious malice and indoctrination, to persuade “non-believers’ to accept allegiance, command, or doctrine to and of a contrasting faith. Cases of such grooming or brainwashing are far more nuanced than direct threats, coercion, inducement and violence. In such cases, it is often seen that there is repeated, subtle and continual manipulation of the victim to induce disaffection towards their own faith and acceptance of the contrasting faith of the perpetrator. While subtle indoctrination is widely acknowledged as predatory, an element which is often understated in such conversions or the attempts of such conversion is the role of loyalty and trust which might develop between the perpetrator and the victim. Fiduciary relationships are often abused to affect such religious conversion. For example, an educator transmitting religious doctrine of a competing faith to a Hindu student. The Hindu student is likely to accept what the teacher is transmitting owing to existence of the fiduciary relationship. The exploitation of the fiduciary relationship to religiously indoctrinate victims would also be included in this category. Since the underlying animosity towards the victim’s faith forms the basis of predatory proselytisation, such cases are considered religiously motivated hate crimes. The case of Ritika Kushwaha and her siblings in Prayagraj is not only a story of domestic turmoil, but a clear example of predatory proselytisation targeting a Hindu family. The circumstances show how one member of the household, Rahul Kushwaha, was influenced, manipulated, and converted, and then used coercion and intimidation to force his sisters to abandon their Hindu identity. The siblings are the direct victims here, subjected to harassment, religious coercion, and psychological abuse with the explicit aim of erasing their Hindu faith. Rahul, once a Hindu son bearing family responsibilities after his father’s death, fell under the influence of criminal associates and, crucially, of Rubia, the wife of his jailed associate Ejaz. Once Rubia moved into the Kushwaha household, the religious orientation of the family shifted. Rahul began practising Muslim rituals, wearing the cap for namaz, visiting dargahs, and gradually imposing these practices on his sisters. This shift was maybe voluntary for him, but not for the rest of the family members. The younger sisters were coerced into Islamic practices and pressured to abandon Hindu worship. The accused's brother, Kunal, was also forced to convert and taken to a dargah to facilitate conversion. The objective was not personal piety, but the systematic conversion of the entire household away from Hindu traditions. The sisters endured sustained pressure to give up their Hindu identity. Ritika described how the family shrine, kitchen, and household order were reorganised to align with Islamic customs, while she was pressed to wear a tabeez and follow rituals alien to her faith. When her younger sister Radhika resisted, Rahul forced her to a Maulana, claiming she was unwell. This manipulation was not only a form of coercion but also a tactic to break resistance by framing religious conversion as a cure for supposed illness. Radhika’s eventual death in May 2024 added a layer of fear and trauma to the household, making Ritika’s situation even more perilous. Rahul’s use of violence, constant threats, and even a pistol in the home created a climate of intimidation. Forcing someone to change their religion under duress is a direct attack on their freedom of conscience and constitutes a hate crime against their original faith. The method employed here was not only overt force but also subtle indoctrination and grooming. Rahul himself was influenced by a combination of prison networks, criminal peers, and Rubia, who lived in the house disguised as a Hindu while pushing Islamic practices within. This environment created a layered process of brainwashing. Taking Radhika to a dargah under the pretext of treating her “illness” was a deliberate strategy of religious manipulation. Similarly, clerics were brought into the house to interact with the sisters, attempting to normalise Islamic authority figures and rituals within a Hindu household. These are classic tactics of grooming: normalising alien practices, eroding confidence in one’s own tradition, and pushing the victim towards acceptance of the imposed faith. The hate crime element in this case lies in the targeting of the Hindu identity. The victims were not left free to choose their faith. Their Hindu practices were dismantled, their shrine and customs replaced, and their resistance punished with abuse. Rahul’s actions, guided by external influence, were not merely about personal religious choice. They were about erasing the Hindu identity of his siblings and assimilating them into another fold through coercion and violence. The sisters, by virtue of being Hindus, were targeted and stripped of their freedom to live and worship according to their tradition. This case demonstrates how predatory proselytisation works at the ground level by influencing and converting one family member, then weaponising his authority to pressure the vulnerable, and finally erasing the religious identity of the household. The Kushwaha sisters became victims of harassment, brainwashing, and coercion, all directed at them because they were Hindus. Disclaimer: It is important to clarify that none of the media sources covering this case have specified the exact date when the victims' ordeal began. The earliest date mentioned is May 2023, when Rahul brought his friend's wife, Rubia, home. Since Hinduphobia Tracker records the incident based on when the victim’s ordeal began and not when it was reported, we have considered the placeholder date of the incident as 16 May 2025, though the media reported the incident on 16 August 2025. The report further states that the accused terrorised the entire household, including the mother, eldest sister and the youngest brother, Rajat, who was even jailed after attempting to shoot the accused while defending his sister. However, when it comes to coercion and torture specifically aimed at religious conversion, the direct victims were three: Radhika, Ritika (who later died), and their brother Kunal. Therefore, for documentation purposes, the victim count has been kept at three, since the focus here is on predatory proselytisation and those who were directly affected by it.