Hindu girl, befriended, financially exploited and pressured for conversion by Muslim man posing as Hindu

Case ID : 99585ed | Location : Satna, Madhya Pradesh, India | Date of Incident : Sun, 6 August, 2023

Case ID : 99585ed

Satna, Madhya Pradesh, India

6 August, 2023

Hindu girl, befriended, financially exploited and pressured for conversion by Muslim man posing as Hindu

Crimes against women in relationships and other sexual crimes

Man pretends to be Hindu

Name Changed

Forced conversion before marriage

Assault or threat upon refusal to convert

Blackmailed to convert

Brainwashed and/or groomed

Case Summary

In Satna, Madhya Pradesh, a Hindu girl was deceived, financially exploited and pressured for religious conversion by a Muslim man named Sohail Bailim. The accused pretended to be a Hindu to trap the victim. According to reports, the victim came into contact with the accused, a resident of Jodhpur, Rajasthan, through Instagram in August–September 2023. The accused gradually befriended the Hindu girl, gained her trust and trapped her in a relationship under the false pretext of marriage. During this time, the accused emotionally manipulated her and extorted a total of Rs 4,05,000 from the girl in multiple instalments. Subsequently, he revealed that he was Muslim and began pressuring her to convert to Islam for marriage. When she refused, he threatened to defame her and kill her. In addition to the financial extortion, he also demanded household jewellery from the victim. Fed up with the ordeal, the victim confided in her family members. They devised a plan to catch Sohail and called him to Satna to collect the jewellery. When he arrived to collect the jewellery, he was apprehended by the victim's family members and handed over to the police, while his accomplice fled the scene. The police registered a case under sections 318(2), 318(4), 78(2) of the BNS and section 5 of the Madhya Pradesh Freedom of Religion Act, 2021. Following an investigation, Sohail was produced in court and sent to Satna Central Jail. Investigations revealed that Sohail had deliberately befriended the Hindu girl by concealing his religious identity, used the pretext of marriage to extort money and jewellery, and created pressure to convert her religion.

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 here is - Forced conversion before marriage. 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 - 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 relevant here is- Brainwashed and/or groomed. 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 girl was lured into a relationship and pressured for religious conversion by the Muslim accused, who pretended to be Hindu. The accused deliberately concealed his religious identity to initiate and sustain a relationship with a Hindu girl. 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. Further, the accused approached the victim under the guise of marriage and financial security, which psychologically positioned him as a provider and protector. This is a classic grooming tactic, where the victim is made to feel that her future stability depends on the relationship. The false promise of a settled life acted as the hook to gradually erode her independent judgment. By befriending her and showing constant attention through social media, Sohail slowly isolated the girl from objective reasoning. He created emotional dependency, where the victim started to perceive him as trustworthy and indispensable. This is how brainwashing works: weakening the victim’s sense of self and implanting reliance on the manipulator. Once the victim was emotionally and financially invested, it became harder for her to break free. At this point, coercion to convert was introduced as a non-negotiable condition, framed as the only way forward for marriage. This, more than anything, underscores the religious motivation behind the crime. Pressuring someone to abandon their faith and adopt another religion against their will is a blatant violation of religious freedom. Forced conversion through coercion is a direct assault on a person’s rights and autonomy. Adding to this, when the girl refused to convert, the Muslim accused threatened to kill her and defame her to make her comply with his demands. Using fear, humiliation, and the threat of public shaming to force a victim into religious conversion is a glaring demonstration of religious animosity at the heart of the crime. This form of blackmail was entirely centred on destroying her religious identity. The intention was to break the victim down emotionally, physically and spiritually, so that she could be converted for marriage. In Islam, marriage to a non-Muslim partner is prohibited; this was why she was pressured for religious conversion. These threats were not random acts of violence but were directly tied to her refusal to give up her Hindu faith. This was not random violence; it was systematic, targeted, and rooted in religious animosity. This incident highlights how the relationship was only a facade. The accused deliberately concealed his identity, built false trust, and used the promise of marriage as a tool to entrap the Hindu girl. His actions were not driven by love or companionship but by two clear motives: financial exploitation and religious conversion. The moment he revealed his true identity, the coercion began—threatening her with defamation and death if she did not submit. This shows deep-seated animosity against her religion, as the entire manipulation was designed to weaken her Hindu identity and force her into Islam. Such acts are not isolated crimes of fraud or abuse but a classic case of hate crime, because the victim was specifically targeted for being Hindu and pressured to abandon her faith under duress. 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. 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: It is important to clarify that none of the media sources covering this case have specified the exact date when the victim's ordeal began, though it is mentioned that she met the accused through Instagram in August/September 2023. Thus, to document this case, we have used an indicative date—August 7, 2023—as a placeholder to represent the beginning of her suffering. While media coverage of the incident emerged on September 7, 2025, the Hinduphobia Tracker records the incident based on when the victim’s ordeal began, not when it was reported.