Hindu minor emotionally manipulated, raped and threatened to convert by a Muslim man pretending to be Hindu
Damoh, Madhya Pradesh, India 
2 May, 2025
Case Summary
A case has emerged in Damoh, Madhya Pradesh, where a Hindu girl was lured, raped, and threatened to convert by a Muslim man named Arbaaz Khan, a resident of Garhi Mohalla, who pretended to be Hindu. According to the victim, in the beginning of 2019, when she was 16 years old, Khan misrepresented his identity, using the Hindu name Saurabh to initiate contact. She stated that under the pretext of friendship and marriage, he repeatedly subjected her to sexual assault. The accused also took her to temples to reinforce his claimed Hindu identity and sexually assaulted her during a trip to Indore. When victim asked for marriage, Arbaaz Khan said that he would only marry her if she converted to Islam, wore a burqa, and performed namaz. Upon her refusal, Khan threatened her and her family. The victim then lodged a complaint against the accused for faking a Hindu identity and sexual exploitation. As of the date of writing this report, police registered the FIR, and the accused was arrested and was being questioned.
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 first sub-category selected is: - Man pretends to be Hindu, with the tertiary category being: - 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: Torture of family to force woman to convert. When Hindu women are in a relationship with non-Hindu men, there are cases where the woman is forced to convert her religion. Several methods are used for such forced conversion. The non-Hindu man is often documented to issue threats and even employ violence. One of the ways used by such perpetrators is threatening and/or torturing the family members of the Hindu woman to pressure her to convert. The perpetrators in such cases issue threats to harm or torture the family of the woman. In some cases, there is also violence directed towards the family to force the Hindu woman to convert. Such crimes aim to blackmail the victim into changing her religion by inducing fear of harm to her family. Such cases are driven by specific religious motivations and against the religious identity of the victim and are therefore qualified as hate crimes. The third sub-category relevant here is- Forced conversion before marriage and within this, the tertiary categories selected are- Forced to follow non-Hindu religious practices and Forced to wear hijab. 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 fourth sub-category selected here is- Proselytisation by grooming, brainwashing, manipulation or subtle indoctrination. Within this, the tertiary categories selected are- Rape and sexual assault/harassment and Conversion of minor. 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 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. This case is a clear instance of a religiously motivated hate crime, where the accused, Arbaaz Khan, deliberately concealed his Muslim identity and assumed a Hindu name to deceive and entrap a minor Hindu girl. By falsely presenting himself as "Saurabh" and taking the victim to temples to reinforce his Hindu identity, he established a relationship with the intent to exploit her emotionally and sexually, not for any genuine commitment but as a calculated act of manipulation. The victim, who was just 16 at the time, was subjected to repeated sexual assault under the pretext of a future marriage, an exploitative tactic that leveraged her trust and age-related vulnerability. It is further important to note here that the victim was a minor, 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 to exploit her. Crucially, when the victim later expressed a desire for marriage, Khan revealed his true identity, he put a condition that she must convert to Islam, wear a burqa, and begin performing namaz for the marriage to proceed. This shift underscores the malafide nature of his actions, revealing that the relationship was just a disguise for religious conversion. Upon her refusal, he issued threats against both her and her family, further deepening the psychological pressure and reinforcing the element of targeted harassment based on her religious identity. This has been witnessed time and time again, where Muslim men target Hindu women for conversion, which is many times achieved through deception, emotional manipulation, or violent threats. This is due to the religious animosity that exists in Islam towards non-Muslims. The fact that these acts of manipulation and abuse began when the victim was a minor not only aggravates the crime legally but also reflects the predatory and exploitative intent of the accused. Taken together, this case fulfils multiple criteria and thus is being added to the tracker.
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 1
- Adult 0
- Senior Citizen 0
- Unknown 0
Case Status
Arrested
Perpetrators Details
Perpetrators
Muslim Extremists
Perpetrators Range
One Person
Perpetrators Gender
male
Sources 
