Hindu woman tortured, converted to Islam and forced to eat beef a Muslim man and his family members

Case ID : aa4b497 | Location : Shrawasti, Uttar Pradesh, India | Date of Incident : Mon, 31 December, 2018

Case ID : aa4b497

Shrawasti, Uttar Pradesh, India

31 December, 2018

Hindu woman tortured, converted to Islam and forced to eat beef a Muslim man and his family members

Crimes against women in relationships and other sexual crimes

Brainwashed and/or groomed

Victim says she was brainwashed/groomed

Rape and sexual assault/harassment

Forced conversion before marriage

Forced to do Nikah

Forced to eat beef

Blackmailed to convert

Case Summary

In Shravasti district, Uttar Pradesh, a Hindu woman named Swati was lured, blackmailed, converted to Islam and forced to eat beef by a Muslim man named Taufiq. According to the victim, Taufiq, a resident of Vishunapur, trapped her and deceived her into a relationship six years ago. Taufiq first befriended her through social media and gradually manipulated her into a romantic relationship. Taufiq established physical relations with her and secretly recorded videos. Using these videos, he began blackmailing her and sexually exploiting her. Furthermore, he also financially exploited her, extorting lakhs of rupees from her over several years. Eventually, Taufiq forced her to convert to Islam and marry him. After conversion, her name was changed to Nargis Bano. When she became pregnant, Taufiq abandoned her. Upon tracing him to his family home, the victim was subjected to continuous abuse by Taufiq's family members. She was forcibly made to have physical relations with strangers, forced to eat beef against her religious beliefs, and was not given food as well. Additionally, Taufiq's family members also tried to financially exploit her. The victim states that she tried approaching police, but no action was taken. When this case started gaining traction in local media, police began to take the matter seriously. As of the date of writing this report, the police registered a formal case against Taufiq and five of his family members and the investigation was ongoing.

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 sub-category selected is: - Forced conversion before marriage, with the tertiary category being: - Forced to do Nikah and Forced to eat beef. 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 sub-category relevant here is: - Brainwashed and/or groomed, with the tertiary category being: - Victim says she was brainwashed/groomed. 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 third 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. In this instance, while the Muslim accused did not hide his identity, the nature of the relationship suggests that the Hindu woman was initially led to believe that her faith would not be a barrier to their romantic involvement. Trusting the accused's word, she entered the relationship, and for the next 6 years, the Muslim man sexually and financially exploited her. However, his true intentions were exposed when he coerced her to convert to Islam and perform Nikah with her. He also changed her name to Nargis so as to further alienate her from her original Hindu identity and cultural roots. When she got pregnant, he abandoned her, proving that he was never interested in a genuine relationship, instead, his only goal was the religious conversion of a Hindu girl, including her sexual and financial exploitation. When she reached Taufiq's house in an attempt to locate him, she faced further abuse from his family members. She was forced to have sexual relations with other men, blackmailed with her private pictures and forced to consume beef. Forcing a Hindu to consume beef is not only a profound disrespect to their religious beliefs but also constitutes a religiously motivated hate crime. In Hinduism, cows are revered as sacred animals, symbolising life and sustenance, and the act of consuming beef is considered highly sacrilegious by many Hindus. Therefore, compelling a Hindu to eat beef goes beyond mere dietary imposition; it is an intentional violation of their religious principles and an assault on their cultural and spiritual identity. In the broader context of hate crimes, forcing someone to engage in behaviour that is expressly forbidden or offensive in their religion is a clear manifestation of religious intolerance. It demonstrates a blatant disregard for the victim's rights to practice their faith freely. These attempts not only point to severe physical and psychological abuse but also suggest deliberate attempts to humiliate and dehumanise a woman based on her religious identity. The accused’s actions go beyond sexual exploitation. By changing her name, converting her and forcing her to eat beef, he sought to strip the victim of her Hindu identity and force her to adopt Islam. These acts are not isolated instances, but rather a pattern rooted in animosity towards the victim’s faith. This suggests that the victim was religiously profiled, lured, and sexually exploited to further the underlying agenda of religious conversion. It is this combination of targeted religious profiling, sexual violence, and psychological torture that justifies the case’s inclusion in the hate crime database. Disclaimer: Media reports state that the victim's ordeal began when she met the accused six years ago, though no exact date or month is provided. To document this case, we have used an indicative date—January 1, 2019—as a placeholder to represent the beginning of her suffering. While media coverage of the incident emerged on May 29, 2025, the Hinduphobia Tracker records the incident based on when the victim’s ordeal began, not when it was reported.