Hindu woman deceived by Muslim man posing as Hindu, threatened and forced into conversion and marriage

Case ID : aa4b488 | Location : Panna, Madhya Pradesh, India | Date of Incident : Wed, 28 May, 2025

Case ID : aa4b488

Panna, Madhya Pradesh, India

28 May, 2025

Hindu woman deceived by Muslim man posing as Hindu, threatened and forced into conversion and marriage

Crimes against women in relationships and other sexual crimes

Forced conversion before marriage

Man pretends to be Hindu

Name Changed

Assault or threat upon refusal to convert

Case Summary

In Madhya Pradesh, a Hindu woman was befriended by a Muslim man who posed as a Hindu. When she later discovered his true religious identity, the man threatened her and demanded that she convert to Islam and marry him. According to news reports, the accused has been identified as Sameer Ali, who was masquerading as Sameer Kumar in order to deceive the Hindu woman into a relationship. The victim is from Panna district, while the accused is from Sagar district. The victim stated that the perpetrator is a divorcee and that he befriended her on Instagram by pretending to be a Hindu. The two exchanged phone numbers and gradually developed a romantic relationship. The accused travelled from Panna to take her to Sagar, but as it was night, they stopped at Hatta town. There, they were questioned by a few members of a Hindu organisation, as they appeared suspicious. During the questioning, the girl revealed that she had initially believed Sameer to be a Hindu, but upon checking his Aadhaar card, she discovered that he was actually a Muslim man named Sameer Ali. When she confronted him about this, Sameer Ali threatened her and pressured her to convert to Islam and marry him. The girl had run away from home and was in Sameer’s custody, so she was unable to speak out at first. However, with the support of the Hindu organisation, she decided to file a police complaint against the accused. The woman, accompanied by members of the Hindu organisation, went to the Hatta police station and registered a case against Sameer Ali. The police handed the victim back to her family. According to SP Shrut Kirti Somvanshi, the victim stated that Sameer wanted to marry her by pressuring her to change her religion. Following the emergence of this case, there was anger among Hindu organisations, and they expressed their displeasure over such incidents occurring in the area.

Why it is Hate Crime ?

This case has been added to the tracker under the primary category- Crimes against women in relationships and other sexual crimes. The subcategory selected is- Man pretends to be Hindu. The 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 subcategory selected is- Forced conversion before marriage. 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. The other subcategory 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 pressurising 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 has been added to the hate crime database as the Muslim perpetrator posed as a Hindu to befriend a Hindu woman and initiate a romantic relationship. This case is a clear instance of a religiously motivated hate crime, where a Hindu woman was deliberately targeted by a Muslim man who deceived her by pretending to be Hindu. This act of deceit itself is a form of manipulation rooted in religious bias, aimed at undermining the woman's ability to make an informed decision about her relationship and religious life. By misrepresenting his identity, the accused violated the woman's trust. Using a false identity, he lured her into a relationship. The victim was coerced into adopting Islam and marrying the accused. This highlights the religious animosity behind deceitfully trapping the Hindu woman and then exploiting her to further the motive of religious conversion and marriage. Such acts of forcing a Hindu to convert to Islam and marry afterwards stem from severe animosity and hatred towards the victim’s Hindu faith, making the religious motive of the crime even more evident. The Muslim perpetrator sought to strip the Hindu victim of her religious identity. This instance constitutes a hate crime against the Hindu woman on the basis of her faith. The victim was threatened when she refused the perpetrator’s demands. This tactic of coercion and intimidation, combined with deceit and force, underscores the underlying agenda of religious conversions. These are not isolated or random incidents, but crimes deeply rooted in animosity towards the victim’s faith. Such cases are glaring examples of bigotry and hatred directed at the Hindu community. The use of false identities combined with threats reveals a deeper and more sinister motivation that is rooted in animosity within Islam towards non-Muslims. Within Islam, the conversion of non-Muslims is seen as a religious duty, and even coercive and violent methods are justified under religious pretexts. This case, therefore, not only involves deception and threats but also represents a targeted assault against the religious identity of the victim, making it a clear case of a hate crime driven by religiously motivated intentions. Disclaimer: It is important to clarify that the report does not specify the exact date when the woman’s ordeal began. Therefore, for documentation purposes, we have recorded the date based on when the incident was reported in the media.