Hindu family coerced into converting to Islam and visit Dargah as daughter-in-law insults their faith and threatens suicide

Case ID : 99583e7 | Location : Indore, Madhya Pradesh, India | Date of Incident : Wed, 20 April, 2022

Case ID : 99583e7

Indore, Madhya Pradesh, India

20 April, 2022

Hindu family coerced into converting to Islam and visit Dargah as daughter-in-law insults their faith and threatens suicide

Predatory Proselytisation

Harassment, threats, coercion for conversion

Attempting to convert/converting by denigrating Hinduism

Case Summary

In Indore, Madhya Pradesh, a Hindu family was forced to convert to Islam and visit a Dargah (Islamic Sufi shrine) by the newly converted daughter-in-law of the family. The Muslim daughter-in-law also denigrated Hindu deities in an effort to pressure the family into adopting Islam. Following this, the Muslim accused also threatened to commit suicide if the Hindu family refused to convert to Islam. According to media accounts, in April 2022, the accused woman was married to the Hindu youth of the victim's family. The lawyer for the Hindu family, Krishna Kumar Kunhare, stated that the woman initially stayed at home after marriage. During this period, she came under the influence of her Muslim friend and began speaking about Islam. She started practising Islamic rituals, visiting dargahs, and bringing back amulet ashes (vibhuti), which she forcibly applied to her Hindu husband. She also began coercing her husband and in-laws to practise Islam. When her husband and in-laws restrained her from speaking about religious conversion, the woman threatened to commit suicide by cutting the veins of her hand. Following this, on one occasion, the Muslim daughter-in-law went to the dargah under the pretext of visiting her maternal home. When confronted by her husband and mother-in-law, she abused them and insisted that they, too, should worship Peer Baba, the Islamic saint whose dargah she had visited. She then denigrated Hinduism and placed increasing pressure on the Hindu family to convert to Islam. In due course, on 17th March 2024, the accused returned with her parents and friends, demanding ₹10 lakh and pressuring her husband to change his religion. Faced with these threats, the in-laws contacted the police. When the police arrived, the accused and her companions left the spot. Later in 2024, the family lodged a complaint with the Police Commissioner, and a case was registered at the Aerodrome Police Station; however, no action followed at that stage. Despite this, the Muslim daughter-in-law continued to pressure her in-laws. The family, through their lawyer, then filed a case in the District Court, Indore, under the Protection of Women from Domestic Violence Act. A confidential investigation by the Women and Child Development Officer confirmed that the daughter-in-law had subjected the family to both mental and physical torture. On this basis, the court registered a case under the Domestic Violence Act and issued a notice to the accused. Advocate Krishna Kumar Kunhare confirmed that the victim’s mother-in-law and husband had provided the court with detailed accounts of the daughter-in-law’s coercion and threats.

Why it is Hate Crime ?

This case has been added to the tracker under the primary category- Predatory Proselytisation. Within this, the subcategory selected 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 other subcategory selected in this case is- Attempting to convert/converting by denigrating Hinduism. In several cases, Hindus are converted or an attempt is made to convert Hindus by denigrating their faith, Hinduism. In such cases, the Hindus associate with the non-Hindu perpetrators often by choice and then, the attempt to convert them by insulting their faith, showing the faith down etc begins. An example of this would be a non-Hindu gathering where the Hindus are attending the gathering of their own free will. However, once they attend the gathering, there is an explicit attempt to convert them by abusing their faith and hailing the faith of the perpetrator. The denigration of the Hindu faith is often based on misrepresentation of the Hindu faith, its doctrine and scriptures and insult to espoused traditions if not blatant lies about Hindu beliefs and ways. Such conversions or attempts at conversions are driven by animosity towards the Hindu faith and are therefore documented as religiously motivated hate crimes. This case is a clear example of an anti-Hindu hate crime. The Hindu family came under pressure from their own daughter-in-law, who converted to Islam shortly after her marriage under the influence of a Muslim friend. Once converted, she immediately began persuading and coercing her husband and in-laws to abandon their Hindu faith and adopt Islamic practices. She first attempted to impose these practices subtly by bringing objects such as tabeez and vibhuti (amulet and consecrated ash) from dargahs and compelling them to use these against their will. Such actions were not innocent gestures of personal belief; they represented coercive efforts to force a Hindu household into practising Islamic rituals. These attempts revealed animosity towards the family's Hindu identity, with the intent of breaking their connection to their faith and refashioning them into conforming Muslims. The perpetrator's coercion escalated when she began directly pressuring them to convert to Islam. She also subjected them to mental and physical torture. The family was not only urged to practice foreign rituals but was threatened with dire consequences if they refused to abandon their Hindu religion. Such acts of forcing Islam upon the Hindu family demonstrate that the act was motivated by religious animosity towards Hinduism and the Hindu community. At one stage, the Muslim accused also denigrated Hinduism while simultaneously demanding conversion, actively insulting the faith of her Hindu in-laws. The act of forcing a Hindu family to choose between honouring their religion and facing humiliation is an open attack on religious autonomy and dignity. Such an act of using derogatory remarks towards Hinduism showcases the religiously motivated nature of the crime. Furthermore, the Muslim daughter-in-law used psychological threats of self-harm, including threatening to commit suicide by cutting her veins, if the family resisted her demands for conversion. These were not isolated acts of domestic friction but coercive tactics designed to strip Hindus of their faith and force Islam upon them. Such actions are a result of deep-seated religious animosity towards Hinduism and its adherents, making it a religiously motivated crime. The victim family's ordeal began in April 2022 and intensified over time, continuing into 2024 when she escalated by bringing her parents and associates to demand money alongside renewed pressure to convert. Despite complaints filed in 2024, the police failed to act meaningfully, leaving the Hindu family unprotected in the face of ongoing harassment. This long span of unchecked persecution reveals that it was not a single outburst but a systematic, premeditated campaign targeted at a Hindu household with the clear aim of religious erasure. Furthermore, the lack of state intervention underscores the wider problem of systemic neglect and discrimination when the victims happen to be Hindus suffering from religious coercion. This case demonstrates how animosity towards Hinduism was at the core of the coercion. For these reasons, the case is being added to the hate crime database. Disclaimer: Media reports do not specify the exact date when the Hindu family’s ordeal began. However, they confirmed that in April 2022, the perpetrator entered the Hindu household through marriage. Soon after, she came under the influence of her Muslim friend, began visiting dargahs, and formally accepted Islam. While news outlets reported the case on 21st August 2025, for the purposes of documentation, we are taking 21st April 2022 as the indicative date of the incident. The Hinduphobia Tracker records the date on which the ordeal of the Hindu victims began, rather than when it is reported in the media. Media accounts also stated that the Hindu family was coerced into conversion. However, they did not provide the total number of family members affected, specifying only the Hindu husband and his mother. Therefore, for the purpose of documentation, the victim count is being recorded as '2', referring specifically to the Hindu husband and the Hindu mother-in-law.