Hindu woman assaulted and threatened for refusing religious conversion

Case ID : aa4aedd | Location : Indore, Madhya Pradesh, India | Date of Incident : Mon, 14 April, 2025

Case ID : aa4aedd

Indore, Madhya Pradesh, India

14 April, 2025

Hindu woman assaulted and threatened for refusing religious conversion

Crimes against women in relationships and other sexual crimes

Forced conversion before marriage

Forced to follow non-Hindu religious practices

Man pretends to be Hindu

Name Changed

Blackmailed to convert

Assault or threat upon refusal to convert

Case Summary

In Indore, Madhya Pradesh, a woman accountant from Delhi was assaulted and threatened after confronting a man she had befriended online. The woman had developed a friendship with a man on the social media app Tango Live, where he introduced himself as 'Richie'. However, his real name was discovered to be Faizan Khan. Following this revelation, the woman filed a First Information Report (FIR) against Faizan, his wife Mubina, his sister-in-law, and his mother for assault and issuing threats. The woman travelled from Delhi to verify the man's identity after finding his driving licence, which revealed his actual name. Upon reaching the address listed on the licence in Haji Colony, she confronted Faizan about his name and marital status. During the confrontation, Faizan insisted that marriage would only be possible if she converted to Islam and began offering namaz. At this point, Faizan’s wife, sister-in-law, and mother arrived and physically assaulted the woman, inflicting injuries and threatening her life. Faizan’s father later intervened and managed to stop the assault, though he also issued a warning, telling the woman to return to Delhi if she wished to stay alive. The attackers then forced her into a car and dropped her off at the Radisson Square. Based on her complaint, Khajrana police registered a case against Faizan, also known as Richie and Kuber Khan, along with his family members.

Why it is Hate Crime ?

This case has been added to the tracker under the prime category- Crimes against women in relationships and other sexual crimes. The sub-category relevant in this case is- Forced conversion before marriage, and within it tertiary category selected is- Forced to follow non-Hindu religious practices. 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. The relationship in such cases is mostly 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. In such cases, 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 other sub-category selected is- Man pretends to be Hindu, and within it 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 other sub-category selected 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 other sub-category selected 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. This case constitutes a hate crime as the violence and threats directed at the woman were motivated by her refusal to convert from her Hindu faith to Islam. What began as a personal relationship turned into an orchestrated attempt to coerce the woman into abandoning her religion as a precondition for marriage. The insistence that marriage was only possible upon her conversion, followed by an immediate physical assault when she questioned the man’s identity and rejected the demand, indicates that the attack was not merely interpersonal but targeted specifically against her religious identity. Moreover, the man's deliberate concealment of his religious identity and the subsequent involvement of his wife and other family members in the assault reinforce the notion that this was not an isolated act of anger, but part of a broader intention to dominate or convert the woman based on religious grounds. The threats to her life, the physical violence she endured, and the ultimatum delivered by the man’s father further reflect the extent to which religious intimidation played a central role in this case. The religious identity of the victim was the clear target, and thus, this incident is rightly categorised as a hate crime.