Hindu girl lured away by Muslim man posing as Hindus, forced to convert to Islam and recite Kalma

Case ID : aa4b3ab | Location : Balasore, Odisha, India | Date of Incident : Fri, 23 May, 2025

Case ID : aa4b3ab

Balasore, Odisha, India

23 May, 2025

Hindu girl lured away by Muslim man posing as Hindus, forced to convert to Islam and recite Kalma

Crimes against women in relationships and other sexual crimes

Man pretends to be Hindu

Name Changed

Forced conversion before marriage

Forced to follow non-Hindu religious practices

Case Summary

In the Remuna area of Balasore district in Odisha, a 19-year-old Hindu girl was lured away from her home by a Muslim man named Sultan Rehman Khan, who was pretending to be a Hindu man named Rohit Purohit. Thereafter, the victim was forced to convert to Islam and follow Islamic principles, like reciting the Kalma. According to news reports, the Hindu girl was a class 12 student from the village, and the accused, 25-year-old Sultan Rehman Khan, was a carpenter at the site of a school construction in the village. He lured the woman into a relationship by posing as a Hindu, after which he eloped with her to West Bengal. He then took her to a mosque and forced her to recite the Kalma and convert to Islam. Reports state that the accused first lured the woman, after which they exchanged mobile numbers and remained in contact. On 10th May 2025, the girl suddenly disappeared. Her family searched for her extensively. One of her friends saw her leaving with Sultan and informed her family. Following this, the family contacted the police and filed a complaint against the accused. The police acted swiftly, forming a special team that headed to Kolkata. They tracked the accused's phone, and both individuals were found at a location which was 60 kilometres away from Kolkata. The police apprehended the accused and recovered the victim, bringing both back to Balasore. During police interrogation, the girl stated that after being taken to West Bengal, she was taken to a mosque, where she was forced to convert to Islam and recite the Kalma. Following this incident, the local Hindus were outraged by this incident. Reacting to the incident, Tanmay Das, the state organisation minister of Hindu Jagran Manch, said, "Cases of trapping Hindu girls in love traps by hiding identity and claiming to be Hindus are increasing in the state, which is a matter of concern. The government should make strict laws against the culprits."

Why it is Hate Crime ?

This case has been added to the tracker under the prime category of- Crimes against women in relationships and other sexual crimes. Under this, the sub-category selected is- Man pretends to be Hindu, and the tertiary categories selected are- 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 subcategory selected is- Forced Conversion before marriage. The 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. 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. In this case, the perpetrator, a Muslim man named Rehman, deliberately concealed his religious identity and assumed a Hindu identity to befriend a Hindu woman, subsequently forcing her to convert to Islam and recite the Islamic Kalma. The religious motivation behind this crime is evident from the calculated deception employed to entrap the Hindu victim. Such actions clearly demonstrate bias and malicious intent towards the victim's Hindu faith. By misrepresenting his identity, the perpetrator exploited the victim's trust and targeted her under false pretences. Deceiving someone by falsifying one's religious identity is a hate crime, as it is driven by hostility or prejudice against the victim's religion. This not only constitutes a profound breach of personal trust but also represents a calculated exploitation of religious identity to facilitate the crime. Such conduct goes beyond personal betrayal; it demonstrates targeted animosity or prejudice against the victim's Hindu identity. This case highlights that the accused first religiously profiled the victim and then deceived her by pretending to share her faith. This shows that this case is not an isolated event but part of a broader trend where identity concealment is used strategically to entrap Hindu women and further the agenda of religious conversions. Thus, the perpetrator's deliberate decision to hide his religious identity strongly underscores the religious motive behind this crime. In such instances, identity concealment is not just a deceptive tactic for personal reasons but a calculated strategy rooted in religious profiling and targeting. The accused was evidently aware that the victim, being Hindu, would likely refuse his advances if she knew his real identity, and he circumvented this by lying, which directly points to a religiously driven intent. This deception reflects a larger pattern where Hindu women are specifically singled out using false identities, often with coercion or conversion in mind. Such targeted victimisation based on religion not only demonstrates a fundamental disregard for Hinduism but also exposes a deeper animosity towards Hindus and their beliefs. Additionally, the accused also forced the victim to convert to Islam and recite the Kalma. This highlights that the accused had a deep level of animosity and disdain for the victim's Hindu faith. This level of animosity stems from Islamic theology, which commands all Muslims to overtly or covertly convert non-Muslims to Islam, in this case, Hindus. This results in instances where Hindus are deceived, manipulated, coerced, and forced to adopt Islam. This instance glaringly showcases that the accused religiously profiled the victim, lured her away, and then forced her to recite the Kalma. This shows that the perpetrator wanted to strip her of her original faith; all this is rooted in hatred for Hinduism and Hindus. Since this case is motivated by religious animosity towards Hindus and Hinduism, it is being added to the hate crime database.