Hindu woman befriended, sexually harassed, and forced to convert to Islam by Muslim man posing as Hindu
Vidisha, Madhya Pradesh, India 
25 November, 2025
Case Summary
In Vidisha, Madhya Pradesh, a Hindu woman was befriended by a Muslim man, Arshad Abdi, who pretended to be Hindu. The accused adopted a false Hindu name and used this to sexually harass and molest the woman. Following this, he also began blackmailing her and forced her to convert to Islam. The victim filed a complaint, upon which the police registered a case against Arshad Abdi and subsequently arrested him. In the complaint, the woman stated that the accused first introduced himself using a fake Hindu name and, gradually gaining her trust, invited her to meet him. The accused took her to Milestone Water Park, where he took photographs and videos of her. In the same water park's hotel, he tried to lure her. He then began blackmailing her with threats of informing her family and pressured her to convert to Islam. The woman also stated that the accused attempted to touch and molest her inappropriately. Upon receiving the complaint, the police registered the case under molestation charges, presented the accused to the court, and remanded him to jail. Hindu organisations criticised the police administration for negligence in this matter. Several organisations, including the Bajrang Dal, surrounded the police control room and demanded strict action. They stated that suspicious incidents had been occurring at the water park for a long time, but no action had been taken. The police maintained that the accused had been arrested based on the complaint. Preparations were underway to launch an investigation into the water park's activities. Following this, the police began investigating the case more thoroughly.
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- Brainwashed and/or Groomed. The tertiary category selected is- 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 subcategory selected 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. Another primary category selected is- Predatory Proselytisation. The subcategory selected is- Harassment, threats, 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. This case is a clear instance of an anti-Hindu hate crime rooted in religious animosity. A Hindu woman was befriended by a Muslim man, Arshad Abdi, who deceitfully posed as a Hindu to gain her trust. He sexually harassed her and pressured her to convert to Islam, further blackmailing her with her photographs. The perpetrator’s deliberate concealment of his Muslim identity and deception to form a relationship or friendship with the victim demonstrate a profound bias and malicious intent rooted in religious targeting. By masquerading as Hindu, he exploited her trust and violated her right to informed consent in relationships based on shared beliefs. This calculated deception reflects a predatory strategy aimed at exploiting the Hindu woman due to her religious identity, exposing deep animosity and disregard for Hinduism. Such identity concealment is not mere personal deceit but a tactic of religious profiling and deliberate targeting of Hindus, making it a religiously motivated offence. The accused lured the victim to Milestone Water Park and then to a hotel room on the premises, where he attempted to sexually molest her. This assault transcended personal gratification and marked a deliberate act to humiliate and degrade her because of her Hindu identity, making it a glaring example of an anti-Hindu hate crime. Furthermore, the coercion and harassment used to force her conversion to Islam reveal a deep-seated religious hatred driving this crime. Forced conversion imposed through threats, intimidation, and pressure—rather than through genuine personal conviction—constitutes clear religious persecution. When conversions occur not by free will but as a result of external coercion, they represent a blatant anti-Hindu hate crime. Such acts are deliberately committed to strip the Hindu victim of her faith, thereby making the offence unequivocally religiously motivated and reflecting a profound animosity towards Hinduism. This abuse of power to deny an individual’s right to freely choose or maintain their faith is a serious violation of fundamental human rights. The Muslim perpetrator also threatened to expose the victim's photos and videos to the victim’s family and community unless she complied with his demands. This blackmail weaponised her fear and shame to enforce submission and conversion, a tactic designed to crush her Hindu spirit and identity. Such actions plainly manifest a religiously motivated intention to dominate, silence, and erase the victim’s Hindu identity—confirming this crime as an overt anti-Hindu hate crime fuelled by religious malice. Given that this case fulfils all the criteria of a religiously motivated offence—deceptive identity concealment, sexual violation targeting religious identity, coercion to convert, and blackmail—it has been added to the hate crime database of the Hinduphobia Tracker. Disclaimer: The Hinduphobia Tracker records incidents based on the date when the crime occurred rather than the date it was reported by the media. However, in this case, the media reports have not specified the exact date when the crime occurred or when the victim's ordeal began. Therefore, for documentation purposes only, the date the media reported the crime, 26th November 2025, is being selected as the indicative date of the incident.
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 0
- Senior Citizen 0
- Unknown 1
Case Status
Case sub-judice
Perpetrators Details
Perpetrators
Muslim Extremists
Perpetrators Range
One Person
Perpetrators Gender
male
Sources 
