Hindu woman lured, raped and coerced to convert to Islam by Muslim man
Ankleshwar, Gujarat, India 
8 November, 2025
Case Summary
In Ankleshwar, Gujarat, a Hindu woman was lured, raped and pressured to convert to Islam by a Muslim man named Azwad (Ajwad) Ahmed Bemat (52). According to reports, the victim came into contact with the accused, who was a Maulvi (cleric) at a madrassa, through a mutual acquaintance. Subsequently, the accused began persistently contacting her, repeatedly calling and messaging her while luring her with the promise of marriage. On 9 November 2025, he invited the victim to his residence inside the madrasa premises, where he made her drink scented water, which made her go unconscious. He took advantage of the situation and raped her twice. When she regained consciousness, the cleric dropped all pretence and immediately pressured her to convert to Islam. He also threatened to defame her and kill her children if she refused to comply. Despite these threats, the victim approached the Panoli Police Station on 11 November 2025 and reported the entire ordeal. Subsequently, the police registered a case against the accused and arrested him. As of the date of writing this report, the investigation was ongoing, with police also examining his Canadian citizenship, travel history, and whether he had targeted other women in a similar manner.
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 it, the sub-category selected is - Brainwashed and/or groomed, with the tertiary category being - 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. The other sub-category selected here is - Blackmail 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. This case has been added to the tracker because a Hindu woman was lured, raped, and pressured to convert to Islam by the Muslim accused. From the beginning, the actions of the accused show that the entire process was carried out with the clear purpose of stripping the victim of her religious identity and converting her to Islam. The victim was initially lured with the promise of marriage, encouraged to trust him, and made to believe that her Hindu identity would not be a barrier to the relationship. Once she arrived at the accused’s house, she was drugged and raped. While the victim is an adult, the grooming, deception, and manipulation involved, combined with the fact that she was a Hindu woman targeted by a Muslim accused, indicate a deliberate religious motive behind the crime. Secondly, the rape itself served a calculated purpose. It was not random violence but a step within a larger plan aimed at breaking the victim emotionally, physically, and psychologically so that she could be pressured into conversion. In many similar cases, perpetrators use sexual violence as a way to weaken the victim’s sense of agency and identity, making it easier to force religious compliance. Here too, the violent assault served as a method to subjugate and destabilise the victim, revealing the underlying intention to convert her. Thirdly, once the victim regained consciousness, the accused pressured her to convert to Islam. Pressuring a Hindu individual to abandon her faith is a direct attack on her religious identity and dignity. It was not presented as a matter of personal choice but as an enforced outcome that the accused wanted to impose. This shows that the assault was part of a combined strategy of violence and coercion designed to erase the victim’s Hindu identity and replace it with another faith. Fourthly, the accused attempted to blackmail and threaten the victim into conversion. He threatened to defame her and kill her children if she refused. These threats were tools of intimidation used to force religious submission. By combining physical abuse, psychological pressure, and threats of violence, the accused displayed a clear desire to dominate the victim by compelling her to convert. This shows that the overarching aim was not merely exploitation but deliberate religious coercion. Taken together, the sequence of events shows that every stage of the crime was pointed toward one goal, which was the forced religious conversion of a Hindu woman. The grooming, the assault, the pressure to convert, and the threats all form a single chain of actions driven by hostility toward her Hindu identity. This case is therefore being documented as a religiously motivated hate crime because the victim was targeted, violated, and coerced for the purpose of destroying her religious identity. 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. The earliest date mentioned is 9 November 2025, when she was raped by the accused. Since Hinduphobia Tracker records the incident based on when the victim’s ordeal began and not when it was reported, we have considered the date of the incident as 9 November 2025, though the media reported the incident on 14 November 2025.
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 
