Hindu family deceived by Muslim man faking Hindu identity; minor daughter groomed and taught Islamic poses

Case ID : a0493b9 | Location : Jaipur, Rajasthan, India | Date of Incident : Thu, 4 November, 2021

Case ID : a0493b9

Jaipur, Rajasthan, India

4 November, 2021

Hindu family deceived by Muslim man faking Hindu identity; minor daughter groomed and taught Islamic poses

Predatory Proselytisation

Proselytisation by grooming, brainwashing, manipulation or subtle indoctrination

Conversion of minor

Family claims grooming

Harassment, threats, coercion for conversion

Case Summary

In Jaipur, Rajasthan, a Hindu family was brainwashed, indoctrinated and harassed for religious conversion by a Muslim dance teacher named Ishaan Khan, who pretended to be a Hindu. According to the victim, Sumit Khandelwal, an online dance teacher, was hired to teach dance to their 6-year-old daughter about four years ago. The dance teacher, Ishaan Khan, concealed his Muslim identity and pretended to be a Hindu man named Ishaan Kumawat. Over time, the accused gradually brainwashed and indoctrinated the minor girl, introducing her to Islamic prayer postures, Namaz postures and Urdu phrases in an attempt to convert her. He further stated that the accused subsequently developed contact, brainwashed and converted his wife, leading to major behavioural and religious changes. According to him, his wife began adopting Islamic customs and praising Islamic practices. He also discovered multiple money transfers from his wife’s bank account to the accused. When Sumit inquired about the accused, he found that the accused was a Muslim, due to which the accused was removed as a dance teacher. This enraged Sumit's wife, who opposed his actions, resulting in frequent quarrels between the couple. Therefore, Sumit, in the interest of his daughter, decided to part ways with his wife. He further stated that in an effort to harass him, his wife and the accused used to take bank loans in his name, causing severe financial distress and forcing him to sell a major portion of his property. He has approached Hindu organisations for assistance and appealed for a thorough investigation, citing threats and ongoing financial harassment. The family said that they now want to use their resources and time for a legal fight and awareness.

Why it is Hate Crime ?

This case has been added to the tracker under the primary category of - Predatory Proselytisation. Within it, the sub-category selected is - Proselytisation by grooming, brainwashing, manipulation or subtle indoctrination, with the tertiary category being - Conversion of minor and Family claims grooming. Religious brainwashing essentially means the often subtle and forcible indoctrination to induce someone to give up their religious beliefs to accept contrasting regimented ideas. Religious grooming or brainwashing also involves propaganda and manipulation. It involves the systematic effort, driven by religious malice and indoctrination, to persuade “non-believers’ to accept allegiance, command, or doctrine to and of a contrasting faith. Cases of such grooming or brainwashing are far more nuanced than direct threats, coercion, inducement and violence. In such cases, it is often seen that there is repeated, subtle and continual manipulation of the victim to induce disaffection towards their own faith and acceptance of the contrasting faith of the perpetrator. While subtle indoctrination is widely acknowledged as predatory, an element which is often understated in such conversions or the attempts of such conversion is the role of loyalty and trust which might develop between the perpetrator and the victim. Fiduciary relationships are often abused to affect such religious conversion. For example, an educator transmitting religious doctrine of a competing faith to a Hindu student. The Hindu student is likely to accept what the teacher is transmitting owing to the existence of the fiduciary relationship. The exploitation of the fiduciary relationship to religiously indoctrinate victims would also be included in this category. Since the underlying animosity towards the victim’s faith forms the basis of predatory proselytisation, such cases are considered religiously motivated hate crimes. The other sub-category selected here 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. This case has been added to the tracker because a Hindu family was brainwashed, indoctrinated and harassed for religious conversion by the Muslim accused, Ishaan Khan, who pretended to be a Hindu. The accused was hired by the Hindu family to be the dance teacher of their minor daughter. Firstly, it is important to note here that the daughter was a minor at the time of the incident, which means the element of consent and genuine change of conscience was missing ab initio. 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, and the Muslim perpetrator purposely targeted and exploited this vulnerability of the victim. He introduced her to Islamic prayer postures, Namaz postures and Urdu phrases in an attempt to convert her to Islam. Such acts are not merely criminal in nature; they are ideologically charged, revealing religious prejudice and a calculated intent to alter the religious identity of a minor without her volition. The use of grooming, where trust is built only to exploit, is an insidious method that exploits the child’s naivety and dependence. Since this case exemplifies the use of coercion and manipulation to achieve religious conversion, it is a blatant act of religious hate, which is why it has been documented here in the hate tracker. Secondly, the accused concealed his Muslim identity and pretended to be a Hindu in order to gain the family’s trust, with the underlying intent of religious conversion. Using deception, he first manipulated the minor girl through subtle religious conditioning and later converted Sumit’s wife by emotionally manipulating and brainwashing her. When Sumit resisted these efforts, the accused subjected him to financial and psychological harassment, including the misuse of his personal information for bank loans. This systematic harassment was meant to coerce him into accepting Islam or force him to leave the city altogether. The intent was to dismantle the family’s religious identity because of their Hindu faith, thus making it a clear hate-driven crime rooted in religious hostility and subversion. This pattern has been seen time and time again, where Muslim men tend to target Hindu families for religious conversion through the use of deception and manipulation. 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, 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: 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 the incident occurred about four years ago. Thus, to document this case, we have used an indicative date—5 November 2021—as a placeholder to represent the beginning of the family's suffering. While media coverage of the incident emerged on 5 Novemerber 2025, the Hinduphobia Tracker records the incident based on when the victim’s ordeal began, not when it was reported. Disclaimer: In this case, the victim count has been recorded as one, as only the minor Hindu child has been considered the primary target of religious conversion. The child, being six years old at the time, was vulnerable, impressionable, and incapable of exercising informed consent or understanding religious indoctrination, which makes her the direct victim of predatory proselytisation. Although the case narrative also involves the mother’s religious change, she was an adult with full agency and legal capacity to make her own choices regarding belief and faith. Hence, her conversion has not been categorised as a targeted act of coercion or manipulation for the purposes of this documentation. The focus of this entry remains on the systematic grooming and attempted religious conversion of the minor child, which constitutes the central offence in this case.