Hindu woman sexually assaulted and forced for conversion by Muslim man in Moradabad, UP
Moradabad, Uttar Pradesh, India 
5 July, 2022
Case Summary
A Hindu girl from the Scheduled Caste community in Moradabad, Uttar Pradesh, suffered repeated rape and attempts to force her to convert to Islam by a Muslim man named Shadab Ali. The victim joined Shadab Ali's export firm after her computer teacher referred her for the job. Shadab Ali, a resident of Galshaheed and older than the victim, pursued her persistently. He promised to convert to Hinduism and marry her. On June 30, 2021, he took her to a temple in Ghaziabad, claiming they would marry once he converted. Instead, he booked a hotel room, gave her a spiked drink that made her unconscious, and raped her. When she awoke and protested, Shadab Ali repeated his marriage promises but never fulfilled them. He rehired her at the firm and continued deceiving her. Later, he proposed a court marriage and arranged for a woman to accompany her to Prayagraj. He intercepted the journey in Bareilly and raped her again. He repeatedly took her to Ghaziabad and Delhi, where he raped her multiple times. Throughout, he conditioned marriage on her abandoning Hinduism and converting to Islam. The victim endured these abuses for months amid constant false promises and pressure to change her religion. She finally filed a complaint on July 6, 2022. Police registered a case against Shadab Ali for rape, attempted forced conversion, violations under the Scheduled Castes and Scheduled Tribes (Prevention of Atrocities) Act, and cheating. Authorities filed a chargesheet, and the trial proceeded. Special Judge Surendra Kumar, who handled SC/ST Act cases, examined the evidence, including the victim's testimony describing the deception, repeated assaults, and demands for conversion. The court convicted Shadab Ali and imposed a life imprisonment sentence along with a fine of ₹1.25 lakh.
Why it is Hate Crime ?
For this instance, the primary category selected is: 'Crime against women in relationships and other sexual crimes'. Within this, the first secondary chosen category is- Forced conversion before marriage, and the tertiary category is- Forced to do nikah. 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- Brainwashed and/or groomed. Within this, 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. In this case, the accused used the promise of marriage as a means to control the Hindu victim and pressure her to leave her religion. From the beginning, marriage was held out as a possibility only if she accepted a change in her faith. He took her to a temple under the false claim that he would convert to Hinduism and marry her, but instead drugged and assaulted her. Each time she resisted, he revived the promise of marriage, making it conditional on her accepting Islam. The insistence on changing her religion before any marriage could take place shows that conversion was the core objective behind the relationship. The pattern of abuse also reflects deliberate grooming. The victim, a young Scheduled Caste Hindu girl, was targeted through deception, emotional manipulation, and false assurances. The accused exploited his position as her employer, gained her trust, and drew her into a cycle of dependence through repeated promises of marriage, staged plans, and fabricated rituals. Over many months, he moved her from one city to another, assaulted her, and then used renewed promises to keep her bound to him. Such long term manipulation is characteristic of grooming, where the perpetrator identifies vulnerabilities and uses them to break down the victim’s resistance. The pressure to convert was not incidental. It was repeated, explicit, and tied directly to the continuation of the relationship. By telling her that marriage would only be possible if she abandoned Hinduism, the accused made religious conversion the central purpose of the entire cycle of deception and assault. The victim endured months of manipulation under the weight of these false assurances before she finally filed a complaint. Since the primary intent behind the prolonged deception, abuse, and exploitation was to push the Hindu victim into accepting Islam before marriage, and because this was carried out through sustained grooming and psychological control, the case is documented in the tracker on that basis.
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
Perpetrator held guilty by court
Perpetrators Details
Perpetrators
Muslim Extremists
Perpetrators Range
One Person
Perpetrators Gender
male
Sources 
