Hindu woman held captive, forced to convert to Islam and wear burqa by Muslim man; accused similarly targeted several Hindu women
Indore, Madhya Pradesh, India 
25 October, 2025
Case Summary
In Indore, Madhya Pradesh, a Hindu woman was held captive by a Muslim man named Sufiyan Khan. The accused sexually exploited the victim, forced her to convert to Islam by reciting the Kalma, the Islamic declaration of faith, and also wear a burqa. Reports also confirmed that the accused had previously sexually exploited several other Hindu women and compelled them to convert to Islam. According to media reports, this case came to light when the MG Road police arrested the Muslim youth, Sufiyan Khan. Karni Sena official Mansingh Rajawat confirmed that their office received information that Sufiyan Khan had forcibly kept a Hindu woman captive for one and a half months. Khan had signed a marriage agreement in Kota and forced the victim to wear a burqa and recite the Kalma, the Islamic declaration of faith. The Hindu activist, Mansingh, also stated that Sufiyan Khan was involved in blackmailing, converting, and sexually exploiting several other Hindu women. Following a complaint to the MG Road police, Khan was arrested in Musakhedi. The victim was rescued and reunited with her family. At the time of writing this report, a case has also been registered against Sufiyan Khan at the Banganga police station. Inspector Vijay Singh Sisodiya confirmed that the accused had been sent to jail.
Why it is Hate Crime ?
The primary category selected in this case 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. The other subcategory selected is- Proselytisation by grooming, brainwashing, manipulation or subtle indoctrination. The tertiary categories selected 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 constitutes a clear instance of an anti-Hindu hate crime driven by deep-seated religious animosity towards the Hindu community and their faith. The Muslim accused held the Hindu woman captive and subjected her to sexual violence while forcing her to convert to Islam, including registering a marriage agreement in Kota. The sexual violence in this case was not a random act motivated by mere sexual gratification; it was a deliberate attack targeting the victim precisely because of her Hindu identity. This act of rape was intended to humiliate her individually and disgrace her entire community. Such religiously motivated sexual violence against Hindu women constitutes a distinct form of hate crime fuelled by anti-Hindu hostility, exposing a calculated effort to demean the victim’s religion through brutal acts. The accused compelled the victim to convert by forcing her to recite the Kalma, the Islamic declaration of faith, and to wear a burqa. Reciting the Kalma signifies a formal acceptance of Islam, so coercing the victim to do so was a clear attempt to forcibly convert her. The imposition of the burqa symbolised an erasure of her Hindu identity, replacing it with an Islamic identity and lifestyle. This compulsion to adopt religious symbols and practices against her will aimed to obliterate her original faith, making it a blatant, religiously motivated crime. Such forced conversions violate a victim’s religious autonomy and freedom of belief, and when conversion occurs under external pressure, force, or harassment—as in this case—it is unequivocally a hate crime. Media reports and statements from Hindu activists confirm that the accused had previously targeted several other Hindu women in similar ways—sexually exploiting them and coercing them to convert to Islam. This pattern of behaviour demonstrates that the incident was not isolated or accidental but part of a sustained campaign targeting Hindu victims because of their religious identity. The systematic abuse and forced conversions reveal the accused’s intent to humiliate the entire Hindu community by attacking its women and imposing Islam upon them. Such repeated targeting is a clear manifestation of a religiously motivated offence aimed at undermining and intimidating the Hindu community as a whole. Given that this case meets multiple parameters of a religiously motivated hate crime, it is being formally documented in the Hate Crime Database of the Hinduphobia Tracker. Disclaimer: The Hinduphobia Tracker records the dates of incidents based on when the crime occurred, rather than when it is reported by the media. However, in this particular case, media reports did not specify the exact date when the victim’s ordeal began; they only provided the date of the report’s publication, 10th December 2025, and stated that the victim was held captive for one and a half months. Based on this information, an indicative date of 26th October 2025 has been selected as the approximate start of the incident. This is done solely for documentation purposes, to provide an estimated timeline of when the victim’s ordeal commenced.
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
Arrested
Perpetrators Details
Perpetrators
Muslim Extremists
Perpetrators Range
One Person
Perpetrators Gender
male
Sources 
