Hindu girl raped and converted to Islam: forced to wear hijab and recite kalma by a Muslim man, posing as Hindu
Kanpur, Uttar Pradesh, India 
31 December, 2018
Case Summary
A 21-year-old Hindu girl from Ajitmal, in Auraiya district of Uttar Pradesh, was trapped, converted to Islam and forced to wear a burkha by a Muslim man, who pretended to be Hindu to lure her. The victim gave an interview to Sudarshan News, where she talked about her whole ordeal. The victim belongs to a poor family where her father worked as a labourer to make ends meet. He was also an alcoholic, which often led to domestic violence. During this time, the victim was staying with her grandmother in Kanpur, when a man introduced himself as her maternal uncle named Rudra Sharma, came to her house. He claimed that he belonged to the same caste as hers and began visiting their home frequently, gaining the family's trust. Rudra, learning about the girl's hardship, suggested taking her to a religious figure named Changur Peer for spiritual treatment. Rudra convinced her and took her to Lucknow, where she was introduced to Peer Baba. Two people were already there, named Naveen and Neetu, both Muslims. At the shrine, she was given money and was subtly encouraged to convert to Islam. She was further told conversion would end all her troubles. Over time, Rudra started visiting their home regularly. In 2024, the victim’s parents arranged her marriage to someone, but after 10-12 days, she returned to her mother's home. During that time, Rudra arrived there and said Peer Baba was in Kanpur again, insisting she should meet him. However, instead of taking her to a shrine, he took her to a hotel and confessed his love towards her. When she resisted, he offered her some drinks, after which she lost consciousness. Rudra raped her and also recorded the act. She was blackmailed by Rudra, coercing her into signing marriage documents. Rudra took her to his house, where his mother and sisters also lived. The victim then discovered that Rudra is actually a Muslim named Meraj Ansari. His family eventually began pressuring the girl to convert to Islam. She was made to wear a burqa and was prohibited from leaving the house. When she resisted conversion, she was raped by Meraj’s father and brother. Later, Meraj also took the victim to a mosque where she was made to recite the kalma. She was given a Muslim name, "Zainab." She tried approaching the police, but it was of no help.
Why it is Hate Crime ?
This case has been added to the tracker under two primary categories. The first is- Predatory proselytisation. Under this, the first sub-category selected is- Conversion/attempts to convert by inducements. Predatory Proselytisation is not just limited to threat, harassment, force and violence, but it also has contours of stealth. In several cases, the Hindu victim is exploited to convert, with non-Hindus taking advantage of their poverty. In such cases, the Hindu victim who is suffering financially is offered monetary benefits, including lucrative offers for jobs, health treatment, education, etc, to induce the victim into changing his/her religion. In such cases, the religious identity of the victim and the aim to disenfranchise him from his faith form the heart of the crime. Also, taking advantage of and exploiting an individual’s economic vulnerabilities is widely acknowledged as exploitation, forms of which are often penalised by law. Such cases therefore are considered religiously motivated hate crimes since the victim’s religious identity forms the very heart of the crime itself. The second sub-category selected under the above category is- Harassment, threat, 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. The second primary category relevant here is- Crimes against women in relationships and other sexual crimes. Within it, the first sub-category selected is: - Forced conversion after marriage, with the tertiary category being: - Forced to wear hijab and Forced to recite kalma. In such cases, a non-Hindu man marries a Hindu woman, and the force/pressure to convert to Islam begins after marriage. 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. The marriage could be under the Special Marriages Act, where neither parties are required to convert their religion for the marriage to be considered legitimate. While the victim in such cases enters matrimony assuming that religious identity is not a barrier, the non-Hindu man starts to pressure the woman to convert to Islam after marriage. 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 situations, there is application of force by the perpetrator, including the denial of the woman’s religious rights. Some of the means by which the woman is forced/pressured to convert include force-feeding beef, being forced to read the Kalma, being forced to wear a hijab, forced to undergo Halala, etc. There are several instances where, after marriage, the woman voluntarily converts to Islam. Such cases are often argued to be a result of religious brainwashing, however, for the purpose of documenting religiously motivated hate crimes, in the absence of the victim complaining of forced conversion, such cases do not form a part of the database. The second sub-category selected here is: - Man pretends to be a 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 third sub-category selected here 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- 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. This incident qualifies as a hate crime due to the clear presence of religiously motivated targeting, deception, and sexual abuse by the Muslim man and his family members. The Muslim named Meraj deliberately concealed his Muslim identity to initiate friendship with the victim. This itself is a clear manifestation of bias and malicious intent towards the victim's religion. By concealing his true identity, he exploited her trust, targeting her under false pretences. This indicates a premeditated intent to manipulate her based on her religious background. In cases like these, the tactic of adopting a false Hindu identity to manipulate and "ensnare" a Hindu individual is not just an act of personal betrayal but can also be interpreted as an expression of disdain or disregard for Hinduism and its customs that reflects a deeper animosity towards Hindus and their beliefs. Moreover, when he learnt about her hardships, he exploited her vulnerabilities to draw her towards Islam. The accused took the Hindu victim to a shrine where she was given money and was subtly encouraged to convert to Islam. She was told that conversion would end all her troubles. Notably, the use of inducements to convert individuals is indeed a common tactic in efforts to influence or manipulate vulnerable individuals into changing their faith. This approach often targets economically disadvantaged groups, offering material benefits such as food, money, or livestock in exchange for conversion. It creates a form of dependency that can alienate individuals from their original faith, as they may feel compelled to convert not out of genuine belief but due to immediate needs or financial pressures. Here, too, the Muslim accused, along with the Islamic peer and the other two women at the Muslim shrine, adopted a similar tactic of exploiting the vulnerability of the Hindu woman to convert her to Islam. When these tactics didn't work, the accused trapped the Hindu woman into a relationship. He tricked her and took her to a hotel where he drugged her, raped her and also recorded the act. He then blackmailed her and coerced her into signing marriage documents. The use of blackmail to force conversion is a clear demonstration of religious hate, as it targets the victim's religious beliefs and seeks to erase her identity. This case is a glaring example of how deep-seated intolerance can manifest in violent and coercive actions, with the ultimate goal of religious subjugation and domination. The deliberate nature of the deception and the subsequent attempt to force conversion highlights the extent of disdain the accused harboured for the victim's faith, making this a clear case of religiously motivated hate. Meanwhile, the victim's ordeal did not end here. After marrying her forcefully, he introduced her to his family members. During this time, the truth was revealed that he was actually a Muslim and had until now exploited her trust by pretending to share her faith. Soon after, the accused and his family members pressured the girl to convert to Islam. She was made to wear a burqa and was prohibited from leaving the house. This was a systematic attempt to cut her off from her Hindu identity and community. Once isolated, the family members started pressuring the girl to convert to Islam. She was made to recite the Kalma and was given a new name in an attempt to erase her religious and personal identity altogether. These acts were not only physical violations but were also deeply symbolic assaults on her religious freedom and personal agency. Additionally, when she resisted conversion, Meraj’s father and brother raped her. Here, sexual violence was used as a means of enforcing religious compliance. The cumulative actions of the accused demonstrate a targeted attack on the victim's religious identity, using a combination of deceit, sexual violence, confinement, and religious coercion. Thus, this case qualifies as a religiously motivated hate crime. Disclaimer: The Hinduphobia Tracker documents incidents based on the date of occurrence. As the deception and harassment for religious conversion began in 2019 without mentioning a specific date, for documentation purposes, the incident has been recorded as 1 January 2019. This is an indicative date, used as a placeholder to represent the beginning of her suffering. While media coverage of the incident emerged on May 24, 2025, the Hinduphobia Tracker records the incident based on when the victim’s ordeal began, not when it was reported.
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
Complaint not filed
Perpetrators Details
Perpetrators
Muslim Extremists
Perpetrators Range
From 5 to 10
Perpetrators Gender
both
Sources 
