Hindu woman deceived by Muslim man posing as Hindu, forced into conversion, forced to cook meat, and son circumcised without consent

Case ID : 995845c | Location : Indore, Madhya Pradesh, India | Date of Incident : Sat, 21 August, 2004

Case ID : 995845c

Indore, Madhya Pradesh, India

21 August, 2004

Hindu woman deceived by Muslim man posing as Hindu, forced into conversion, forced to cook meat, and son circumcised without consent

Crimes against women in relationships and other sexual crimes

Man pretends to be Hindu

Name Changed

Forced conversion after marriage

Forced to wear Hijab

Forced circumcision

Assault or threat upon refusal to convert

Blackmailed to convert

Brainwashed and/or groomed

Conversion of minor

Case Summary

In Mumbai, Maharashtra, a Hindu woman was lured, deceived into marriage and pressured for religious conversion by a Muslim man named Mohammad Yusuf, who posed as a Hindu. He also circumcised her minor son without consent. She was also forced to cook meat. According to reports, the victim got acquainted with the accused in 2004, while they were working together in an advertising company in Mumbai. Gradually, the accused trapped her into a relationship by pretending to be a Hindu man named Romi, and eventually married her in 2010. After the marriage, the victim discovered that the accused's real name was Yusuf and that he was a Muslim who had concealed his real identity. Despite the deception, she decided to continue the marriage and in 2011, they had a son. However, Yusuf secretly had the child circumcised without consent from the victim, stating that he intended to raise him according to Islamic tradition. Following this, Yusuf and his sister Gulbanu began pressuring the Hindu woman to convert to Islam. The victim was forced to wear a burqa, cook meat and add 'Khan' to her surname. When the victim protested, she was physically assaulted, abused and mentally harassed. When the victim, fed up with the ordeal, talked about living separately from her husband, Yusuf started threatening her. He threatened to make her objectionable videos public in an attempt to control her. He also gave her death threats and threatened to kill her son if she protested. Distressed by these actions, the woman filed a complaint with the police. Based on her complaint, the police registered an FIR against Yusuf and his sister, Gulbanu Khan, under sections 498A, 323, 294, 506, and 34 of the BNS and sections 3 and 5 of the Religious Freedom Act 2021. The police began investigating the matter, and further legal action was initiated against the accused.

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 this, the first subcategory selected is - Man pretends to be Hindu. The tertiary category selected is- 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, with the tertiary category being - Forced to wear hijab and Forced circumcision. 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. The third sub-category selected here 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 fourth sub-category selected here 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. The fifth sub-category selected here is - Brainwashed and/or groomed, with the tertiary category being - Conversion of minor. 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. This case has been added to the tracker because a Hindu woman was deceived into a relationship and marriage by a Muslim man, who pretended to be Hindu. The accused 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. After marriage, the Hindu woman was pressured into discarding her faith and converting to Islam by the accused and his sister. Forcing someone to renounce their religion lies at the heart of religious hatred. Such coercion is not a mere act of personal cruelty; it is an assault on the freedom of conscience and religious autonomy of the victim. This act revealed that the victim's Hindu identity was not accepted, and that her perpetrators sought not only to dominate her but to erase her very existence as a Hindu woman. Such actions are a result of deep-seated religious animosity towards the Hindu community and Hinduism. She was forced to wear a burqa and add “Khan” to her surname, clear markers of an attempt to overwrite her Hindu identity with foreign religious practices. By forcing her to wear a burqa, the Muslim perpetrator attempted to strip her of her Hindu faith and impose foreign religious practices upon her. It was not merely about clothing: it symbolised the effort to overwrite her Hindu identity and forcibly assimilate her into practices of the Islamic faith. Similarly, adding 'Khan' to her surname was another attempt at severing her Hindu ties. This again glaringly demonstrates the religiously motivated nature of the crime. Forcing a Hindu woman to cook meat constitutes an anti-Hindu hate crime because it directly violates her religious identity, beliefs, and dietary practices, which are integral to Hindu dharma. In Hindu tradition, especially among large sections of devotees, abstaining from meat is not just a personal choice but a sacred vow tied to purity, ahimsa, and spiritual discipline. Compelling her to cook meat was not merely domestic coercion but a deliberate act of religious humiliation, aimed at erasing her Hindu way of life and imposing alien practices upon her. This reflects targeted hostility against her Hindu faith and therefore amounts to a hate crime against Hindus. When the Hindu woman protested, she was subjected to physical and mental torture by the Muslim perpetrator and his sister. Refusal to abandon her faith was met with violence, showing clearly that her suffering stemmed from religious animosity. In such cases, physical violence serves a dual purpose: physical subjugation and religious humiliation. The intention is to break the victim down, emotionally, physically, and spiritually, so that she can be converted. This is not random violence; it is systematic, targeted, and rooted in religious animosity. It is further important to note here that the victim's son was a minor, which means the element of consent and genuine change of conscience was missing ab initio. He was forced to undergo circumcision, and the accused, despite the victim's objection, explicitly told that he would raise the boy according to Islamic traditions. By targeting the son, the perpetrators ensured that the victim’s Hindu lineage itself would be broken. Minors, due to their young age and lack of maturity, are particularly vulnerable to manipulation and coercion. They may not have the ability to fully understand the implications of converting to another religion. The act of imposing Islamic practices on the minor highlights how conversion in such cases is not confined to the woman alone but extends across generations, reflecting the broader ideological aim of erasing Hindu identity in the whole family. 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. Therefore, religious conversions of Hindu women and even of minors are often seen as a badge of honour, totally disregarding the methods used to achieve it. 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. Disclaimer: Media reports state that the victim's ordeal began when she met the accused in 2004, though no exact date or month is provided. Thus, to document this case, we have used an indicative date—August 22, 2004—as a placeholder to represent the beginning of her suffering. While media coverage of the incident emerged on August 22, 2025, the Hinduphobia Tracker records the incident based on when the victim’s ordeal began, not when it was reported.