Married Hindu woman lured away and tortured to convert to Islam by Muslim man pretending to be Hindu

Case ID : 995854b | Location : Colonelganj, Uttar Pradesh, India | Date of Incident : Sun, 20 July, 2025

Case ID : 995854b

Colonelganj, Uttar Pradesh, India

20 July, 2025

Married Hindu woman lured away and tortured to convert to Islam by Muslim man pretending to be Hindu

Crimes against women in relationships and other sexual crimes

Man pretends to be Hindu

Brainwashed and/or groomed

Family claims grooming

Predatory Proselytisation

Harassment, threats, coercion for conversion

Case Summary

In Colonelganj, Uttar Pradesh, a married Hindu woman was lured away by a Muslim man named Suhail Ahmed, who had pretended to be a Hindu man. He deceived the woman, took her to Maharashtra, and forced her to convert to Islam. During this period, she was subjected to torture in order to compel her conversion. According to media reports, this incident came to light when the Hindu husband of the woman went to the police station to file a missing persons complaint. He stated that on 21st July 2025, his wife had gone out to withdraw money for an instalment but did not return home. She had also taken ₹21,000 in cash and their seven-year-old daughter with her. Later, it emerged that Suhail Ahmed, a resident of Bahraich district, had been in contact with her while pretending to be of the Hindu faith. He lured her into a relationship and then took her away to Maharashtra. Once there, he subjected her to severe torture in an effort to force her conversion to Islam. The Hindu couple’s minor daughter eventually telephoned her father and cried out, “Papa, save me.” Since then, the husband had been visiting the police station continuously to seek help. He had also submitted an application to the Assistant Superintendent of Police demanding the recovery of his wife and daughter.

Why it is Hate Crime ?

This case has been added to the tracker under the primary category- Crime against women in relationships and other sexual crimes. Within this, the subcategory selected is- Man pretends to be Hindu. 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 other subcategory selected is- Brainwashed and/or Groomed. Within this, the subcategory selected is- Family claims Grooming. 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. Another primary category selected is- 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. In this case, firstly, it's important to clarify that the Hinduphobia Tracker does not generally record cases in which an adult woman leaves her home with a Muslim man, followed only by family members later filing complaints that she was lured away or forced to convert. Such cases are often difficult to document because in such cases the supposed victim is an adult who might elope of her own accord. The family members cannot be taken at face value, as they might be making statements under social stigma or pressure. However, in this particular case, the matter went beyond a standard complaint. The victim’s minor daughter, who was with her mother throughout the ordeal, gave direct statements stating that her mother was subjected to forced conversion and abuse. As a minor child is unlikely to fabricate such testimony under social or familial pressure, her words carry significant weight in establishing the nature of this incident. Therefore, in light of the minor girl’s statements, the Hinduphobia Tracker is categorising this case as an anti-Hindu hate crime, since it clearly involved targeting a Hindu woman with the intent of stripping her of her Hindu identity and faith. This case involved a Muslim perpetrator who targeted the Hindu victim specifically for her Hindu identity. The Muslim man lured the Hindu woman into a romantic relationship under the false pretence of being a Hindu himself. By deceiving her about his religious identity, he deliberately exploited her trust in order to draw her into a relationship. This act of deception was not neutral; rather, it was directed at a Hindu woman with the intent to sever her from her faith and community, making it a crime motivated by religious animosity towards the Hindu victim, her faith, and community. The second stage of targeting exposed further religious bias. The Muslim perpetrator lured the Hindu woman away from the security of her home, took her to Maharashtra, and subjected her to torture. His goal was not merely control but forced religious conversion. The use of intimidation, coercion, and torture to compel her to abandon Hinduism highlighted the explicitly religiously motivated nature of the crime. The use of force to uproot a Hindu individual from her faith is, by its very nature, an attack on the religious community she represents. In this case, it was an attempt to erase her Hindu identity and replace it with another faith, Islam, under duress. By compelling her to convert to Islam, the Muslim perpetrator showcased the level of animosity he held towards Hinduism and the Hindu community. Equally disturbing was the involvement of the victim's minor daughter. The child, who herself remained a Hindu, was taken along, placed in the midst of this ordeal, and witnessed both the deception and the coercion. Her desperate plea to her father—“Papa, save me”—reflected the trauma of seeing her mother tortured to discard her Hindu faith. The presence of the child amplified the communal dimension of the crime, as two Hindus were subjected to hostility due to their Hindu identity. Taken together, the deception, abduction, torture, and forced conversion all revealed that this was not merely a case of personal abuse but one where the motivation was anchored in religious identity. The targeting of a Hindu woman because she was Hindu, the effort to erase her faith through coercion, and the trauma inflicted upon her Hindu child established this as an anti-Hindu hate crime rooted in religious animosity. Therefore, this case is being added to the hate crime database. Disclaimer: The Hinduphobia Tracker records the date of an incident based on when the victim’s ordeal began, rather than when it is reported in the media. In this case, the media reported the matter on 1st September 2025. However, the report did not specify the exact date on which the ordeal commenced. The only indication provided was that the Hindu woman was lured away by the accused on 21st July 2025. Hence, for the purpose of documentation, the Hinduphobia Tracker has recorded 21st July 2025 as the indicative date of the incident.