Hindu woman lured, raped, and coerced to convert to Islam by Muslim man; accused previously targeted several Hindu women
Lucknow, Uttar Pradesh, India 
25 February, 2025
Case Summary
In the PGI area of Lucknow, Uttar Pradesh, a married Dalit Hindu woman was raped and forced to convert to Islam by a Muslim man. The accused deceived her into a relationship and exploited her vulnerable circumstances. According to reports, the victim first met the accused during a family visit to a relative’s engagement ceremony in February 2025. The man, who belonged to the Muslim community, initiated conversation and soon began contacting her through social media and messaging apps. Over time, he manipulated her emotionally and drew her into a relationship without disclosing his intentions. As the interaction intensified, the victim’s husband learned about the growing communication between his wife and the accused. Distressed by the situation, he attempted suicide, leading to severe tensions within the household. Following this, the victim’s family initiated divorce proceedings on 14 October 2025, and she separated from her marital home. During this period of emotional instability, the accused further tightened his control over her. On 26 October 2025, under the pretext of resolving matters and formalising their relationship, the accused took her to a hotel in Dubagga. Inside the hotel room, he forced a fake marriage ritual on her and raped her. He recorded private photographs and videos to use as leverage. The victim stated that she was sexually assaulted multiple times during and after this encounter. After the initial rape, she stated that further sexual violence followed. When she pressed the man to marry her properly, he escalated coercion by demanding she adopt his religion, Islam. The woman also said he later blocked her on social platforms and phone, cutting off any ability to follow up or seek redress. She told investigators and acquaintances that this was not an isolated incident, stating the same man had similarly deceived and exploited several Hindu women in the area. Her account led to formal complaints being filed and the matter being reported to local authorities for investigation.
Why it is Hate Crime ?
The primary category in this case is: Crimes against women in relationships and other sexual crimes. The subcategory under this 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: 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. Another primary category in this case is: Predatory Proselytisation. The subcategory under this is: Proselytisation by grooming, brainwashing, manipulation or subtle indoctrination. The tertiary categories under this are: 'Rape and sexual assault/harassment' and 'Pattern of targeting Hindus'. Religious brainwashing essentially means the often subtle and forcible indoctrination to induce someone to give up their religious beliefs to accept contrasting regimented ideas. Religious grooming or brainwashing also involves propaganda and manipulation. It involves the systematic effort, driven by religious malice and indoctrination, to persuade “non-believers’ to accept allegiance, command, or doctrine to and of a contrasting faith. Cases of such grooming or brainwashing are far more nuanced than direct threats, coercion, inducement and violence. In such cases, it is often seen that there is repeated, subtle and continual manipulation of the victim to induce disaffection towards their own faith and acceptance of the contrasting faith of the perpetrator. While subtle indoctrination is widely acknowledged as predatory, an element which is often understated in such conversions or the attempts of such conversion is the role of loyalty and trust which might develop between the perpetrator and the victim. Fiduciary relationships are often abused to affect such religious conversion. For example, an educator transmitting religious doctrine of a competing faith to a Hindu student. The Hindu student is likely to accept what the teacher is transmitting owing to existence of the fiduciary relationship. The exploitation of the fiduciary relationship to religiously indoctrinate victims would also be included in this category. Since the underlying animosity towards the victim’s faith forms the basis of predatory proselytization, such cases are considered religiously motivated hate crimes. This case has been added to the Hinduphobia Tracker because it shows clear indicators of targeted exploitation of a Hindu woman by a Muslim perpetrator who used deception, emotional manipulation, sexual violence and forced conversion as tools of control. The pattern of abuse in this incident is not limited to personal misconduct. Instead, it reflects a deliberate attempt to overpower and erase the victim’s Hindu identity through coercive and predatory methods. The Muslim man’s first act was to build a relationship with the Hindu woman by taking advantage of her vulnerability and concealing both his intentions and the eventual religious pressure he intended to impose. The progression of events shows planned manipulation rather than a spontaneous dispute. He initiated contact, gradually strengthened emotional dependence, and deepened control once her marriage collapsed. This behaviour demonstrates grooming, which is a common feature in hate crimes involving the forced conversion of Hindu women. The sexual assault in the hotel marked a critical turning point. The perpetrator conducted a fake marriage ritual to deceive the Hindu woman into believing she entered a legitimate union, exploiting her trust to enable brutal sexual violence. This escalated into repeated rapes and blackmail with intimate photographs, intensifying pressure to submit to his demands and shattering her resistance as part of a calculated pattern of domination. She faced sexual violence not merely for physical gratification but to violate her precisely for her Hindu identity, rendering these acts unambiguous instances of anti-Hindu hate crimes. The accused's demand that the Hindu victim convert to Islam upon her request for legitimate marriage exposed the core religious motive driving her exploitation. He insisted marriage required her to abandon her Hindu identity entirely, mirroring documented patterns where non-Hindu perpetrators exploit relationships and sexual vulnerability to coerce conversions. This religious pressure dominated as the central condition for her acceptance, demonstrating outright hostility towards her Hindu faith. Forced conversions violate a Hindu individual's right to religious autonomy, while targeting, violating, and then leveraging conversion as marriage inducement proves the accused sought to strip her of her faith and identity from the outset, marking this as a religiously motivated hate crime. The victim’s statement that the Muslim man had similarly deceived and exploited other Hindu women in the area further strengthens the case for a hate-crime classification. This indicates a repeated pattern targeting Hindu women specifically, rather than a single personal dispute. Such behaviour suggests a mindset that views Hindu women as targets for manipulation, exploitation and conversion, making this a clear example of a hate crime driven by anti-Hindu animosity. Since this case meets the parameters of an anti-Hindu hate crime, it is being added to the hate crime database of the Hinduphobia Tracker. Disclaimer: The Hinduphobia Tracker records incidents from the date the victim's ordeal began, not the reporting date. Here, media reports omitted the precise start of exploitation but confirmed the Hindu victim first met the accused in February 2025 and suffered rape at a hotel on 26 October 2025. Based on this information, 26 February 2025 is being selected as the indicative incident date of the incident for documentation.
Victim Details
Total Victim
1
Deceased
0
Gender
- Male 0
- Female 1
- Third Gender 0
- Unknown 0
Caste
- SC/ST 1
- OBC 0
- General 0
- Unknown 0
Age Group
- Minor 0
- Adult 1
- Senior Citizen 0
- Unknown 0
Case Status
Complaint filed
Perpetrators Details
Perpetrators
Muslim Extremists
Perpetrators Range
One Person
Perpetrators Gender
male
Sources 
