Jaipur: Muslim gym trainer traps Hindu woman in love affair, converts and marries her; woman now wants to return to Hinduism
Jaipur, Rajasthan, India 
6 November, 2024
Case Summary
Pratima Navankur, a Maharashtra resident, recently approached the Jaipur Police Commissionerate in distress. In 2020, Pratima travelled to Jaipur for an event shortly before the lockdown began and was unable to return home. During her stay, she rented a flat and joined a gym, where she met trainer Arif Inayat, who initiated a romantic relationship with her. Under his influence, she converted to Islam and married him. Pratima claims Arif forced her into a physical relationship before marriage, and they eventually formalized their marriage on October 18, 2021. Although he converted her religion, he intentionally did not change her name—a detail she later understood was part of a scheme to access her property. According to Pratima, Arif sold her family property in Mumbai at a low price and demanded the proceeds, threatening her with divorce if she refused. Now, while Pratima and her two-and-a-half-year-old daughter suffer from dengue, Arif has refused to provide any financial or medical support and continues pressuring her for money. Feeling trapped, Pratima reached out to Hawa Mahal MLA Bal Mukundacharya, who helped her register a complaint with Additional Commissioner Kunwar Rashtradeep after she faced obstacles at the local police station due to Arif's political connections. Pratima alleges Arif forced her to wear a burqa and perform Namaz without changing her name, likely for property-related motives. Now disillusioned with both the religious conversion and the marriage, Pratima seeks to end her association with Arif, who, she discovered, is already married with five children—a fact he concealed. The police began investigating, and Pratima hopes to return to her former life.
Why it is Hate Crime ?
This case has been added as a religiously motivated hate crime under the category of Hate crimes against women in relationships and sexual crimes. Under this, the sub-category selected is- Forced conversion before marriage. Further based on the details, two tertiary categories, namely, 'Forced to wear hijab' and 'Forced to follow non-Hindu religious practices' have also been selected here. 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. This case represents a religiously motivated hate crime where deception was employed as a tool to convert the victim, Pratima Navankur, to Islam and exploit her for financial gain. In this case, there is no indication that the Muslim accused hid his identity. Typically, in such situations, the woman is likely led to believe that her faith would not be an obstacle to their relationship. Here, the Hindu woman, trusting the accused's assurances, married the Muslim man. However, after the marriage, he converted the victim to Islam. The accused also forced her to wear a burqa and perform Namaz. Despite converting her religion, Arif deliberately refrained from changing her name, likely to maintain control over her property and avoid legal complications. His actions reflect a calculated effort to exploit her vulnerability and gain access to her ancestral assets, further pressuring her to hand over money through threats of divorce. The details of the case make it obvious that the accused's actions were not just about financial exploitation but were rooted in a desire to strip the victim of her Hindu identity and force her into adopting Islam. Given these elements, the case has been classified as a religiously motivated hate crime, driven by the accused's animosity towards the Hindu faith.
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 registered
Perpetrators Details
Perpetrators
Muslim Extremists
Perpetrators Range
One Person
Perpetrators Gender
male
Sources 
