Hindu woman deceived, raped and blackmailed for conversion by Muslim man assuming Hindu identity
Damoh, Madhya Pradesh, India 
9 January, 2024
Case Summary
In Damoh, Madhya Pradesh, a Hindu woman was deceived, raped and pressured for religious conversion and nikah (Islamic marriage) by a Muslim man named Rashid Khan, who assumed a false Hindu identity to trap her. The accused, a married man with two children, trapped the woman by hiding his true identity and pretending to be Hindu. On the night of January 10, 2024, when the victim was sleeping alone in her room, Rashid forcibly entered her room and raped her. He also made a video of the incident, which he used to blackmail her. He threatened to kill her younger brother if she resisted. For nearly 18 months, the accused blackmailed and pressured her to convert to Islam and perform nikah with him. Even after the victim got married to another man, the accused continued to harass her, demanding that she convert and undergo nikah with him. He threatened that if she refused, he would leak her videos online and destroy her marital life. On August 31, 2025, he uploaded her obscene videos and photos to Facebook, causing severe distress to the victim and her family. With the support of a Hindu organisation, the victim reported the matter to the police. Based on her complaint, an FIR was registered under the Religious Freedom Act. The police confirmed that Rashid Khan had been arrested and that further legal proceedings were underway.
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 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 is - Forced conversion before marriage, with the tertiary category being - Forced to do Nikah. 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 third 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 fourth 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 fifth subcategory selected is- Brainwashed and/or Groomed. The tertiary category selected is- Rape and sexual assault/ harassment. 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, raped, and pressured for religious conversion and nikah by a Muslim man. The accused deliberately concealed his religious identity to initiate contact and sustain a deceptive 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, reflecting a deeper animosity towards Hindus and their beliefs. The Muslim accused then pressured the victim to convert to Islam and perform nikah with him. This clearly demonstrated that the perpetrator’s actions were aimed at making the victim completely abandon her own Hindu faith. The aim was not just personal control but religious subjugation. This was not an isolated case of coercion but a premeditated effort to convert a Hindu girl to Islam, driven by deep-seated religious animosity and a desire to erase her Hindu identity. Such acts are rooted in longstanding hostility and prejudice against the Hindu victim and her religious beliefs and identity, making it a religiously motivated hate crime. Thus, even the exploitation and blackmail were not random acts of crime; rather, they functioned as religiously motivated tools aimed at targeting, humiliating, and dominating a Hindu woman because of her faith. Furthermore, the use of intimate photos and videos to blackmail the victim into conversion and nikah shows how sexual exploitation was interwoven with religious coercion. This demonstrates that the Muslim perpetrator specifically targeted the Hindu victim for sexual exploitation and religious conversion, and when the victim refused to comply, he resorted to threats and blackmail to make her comply. These threats were not random acts of violence, they were directly tied to her refusal to give up her Hindu faith. Such acts are not merely personal crimes; they are rooted in a desire to dominate and erase the religious identity of the victim, which stems from intrinsic animosity towards the Hindus and their faith; thereby qualifying them as religiously motivated hate crimes. Disclaimer: The Hinduphobia Tracker records incidents based on when the victim’s ordeal began and not when it was reported by the media. In this case, the report does not specify when the accused first trapped the victim. However, it does state that the victim was raped by the accused on January, 10, 2024. Therefore, for documentation purposes, the date of the incident has been recorded as January 10, 2024, as this is the earliest date available revealing the start of the victim's ordeal.
Victim Details
Total Victim
1
Deceased
0
Gender
- Male 0
- Female 1
- Third Gender 0
- Unknown 0
Caste
- SC/ST 0
- OBC 0
- General 0
- Unknown 1
Age Group
- Minor 0
- Adult 1
- Senior Citizen 0
- Unknown 0
Case Status
Arrested
Perpetrators Details
Perpetrators
Muslim Extremists
Perpetrators Range
One Person
Perpetrators Gender
male
Sources 
